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SANTA     CRUZ 


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Gift  of 

Prof.  Paul  Seabury   . 


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SANTA     CRUZ 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS "S   WRITINGS. 


SPEECHES,  LECTURES,  AND  LETTERS 

By   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

COMPILED,  UNDER  DIRECTION  OF  THE  GREAT  ORATOR, 

BY  JAMES   REDPATH. 

This  volume  contains  the  most  prominent  speeches  of  his  anti-slavery  career, 
together  with  many  later  efforts ;  thus  presenting  varied  specimens  of  his  match- 
less eloquence. 

PUBLISHED  IN  TWO  STYLES. 

Library  edition.    Cloth.    Tinted  paper $2.50 

And,  for  general  distribution,  a  popular  edition.    Paper  covers 50 

Cloth,  $1.00. 


PHILLIPS    MEMORIALS. 

Uniform  type,  size,  and  covers.    8vo.    Paper.    25  cents  each.    Comprising 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS.    A  Biographical  Essay.    By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH 

HlGGINSON. 

EULOGY  OF  GARRISON.    Remarks  of  WENDELL  PHILLIPS  at  the  funeral 
of  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

THE  LOST  ARTS.    The  Celebrated  Lyceum  Lecture  by  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL.    The  Irish  Patriot.    Lecture  by  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

THE  SCHOLAR  IN  THE  REPUBLIC.    Address  at  the  Centennial  Anni- 
versary of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  of  Harvard  College,  June  30,  1881. 

THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      Speeches  at  various  times  on  this  subject,  by 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 
Others  in  preparation. 


*#*  Sold  by  all  booksellers  and  newsdealers,  or  sent  by  mail,  postpaid,  on  re- 
ceipt of  price. 

LEE  AND  SHEPARD,  Publishers,  Boston. 


THE  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS 


BY 


GEORGE  LOWELL,  AUSTIN 
/"/ 

AUTHOR  OP  A  "HISTORY  OP  MASSACHUSETTS,"  "  LONGFELLOW :  HIS 
LIPE,  WORKS,  AND  FRIENDSHIPS,"  ETC. 


"  A  public  man  is  often  under  the  necessity  of  consenting  to  measures 
he  dislikes,  to  save  others  he  thinks  important.  But  the  historian  is  under 
no  such  necessity."— LORD  MACAULAY. 

"  In  God's  world  there  are  no  majorities,  no  minorities;  one,  on  God's 
side,  is  a  majority."  — WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


NEW  EDITION 


BOSTON 
LEE   AND    SHEPARD    PUBLISHERS 

10  MILK  STREET  NEXT  OLD  SOUTH  MEETING-HOUSE 
1888 


COPYRIGHT,  1884, 
GEORGE  LOWELL  AUSTIN. 


Ml  rights  reserved. 


E 


A 


TO 

THE  COLORED  CITIZENS  OF  THIS  LAND, 
TO  WHOM  WENDELL  PHILLIPS  WAS  ALWAYS  A  FRIEND; 

TO  WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS, 
OF  WHOSE  NATURAL  RIGHTS  HE  WAS  ALWAYS  A  FEARLESS 

ADVOCATE; 

TO  YOUNG  MEN  AND  WOMEN, 

TO  WHOM  HIS  UNSTAINED  LIFE  WAS  ALWAYS  AN  EXAMPLE, 
HIS  WORDS  AN  ADMONITION  FOR  GOOD  AND  RIGHT, 

THESE  PAGES 

ARE  RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED 
BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


PBEFACE. 


T  HAVE  entitled  the  following  pages,    u  The  Life  and 
-  Times  of  Wendell  Phillips."     Hence  a  few  words,  in 
the  form  of  a  preface,  would  seem  to  be  necessary. 

Mr.  Phillips  came  prominently  before  the  public  in  the 
year  1837.  From  that  time  onward,  he  was,  in  a  large 
sense,  a  public  man.  At  no  time  in  his  career  was  he 
regarded  as  a  statesman :  he  never  cast  a  vote  at  the  polls, 
and  never  played  the  rdle  of  a  politician,  so-called.  Not- 
withstanding all  this,  he  was,  in  a  very  great  measure,  a 
public  man.  During  the  period  in  which  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  agitated,  —  that  is,  from  the  year  1837  until  the 
adding  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  — 
his  name,  his  utterances,  his  acts,  were  constantly  recorded 
in  the  newspapers.  He  was  an  acknowledged  leader  in  the 
movement,  and  the  part  which  he  played  tended  to  shape 
the  course  of  American  history.  With  the  Woman's  Rights 
Movement,  with  the  causes  of  Temperance,  of  the  Irish 
nation,  of  Labor  Reform,  of  Prison  Reform,  and  indeed  with 
every  effort  seeking  the  good  of  humanity,  Mr.  Phillips  was 
closely  identified. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  write  the  life  of  such  a  man 
without  also  writing,  however  briefly,  the  history  of  his 

5 


6  PREFACE. 

times.  Public  events,  and  his  connection  with  them,  alone 
give  prominence  to  any  individual :  eliminate  them,  and  all 
interest  in  him  is  lost  save  to  his  family.  What  Wendell 
Phillips  was  in  his  own  home  belongs  exclusively  to  that 
home,  and  to  the  beloved  companion  who  was  the  centre  of 
that  home  and  of  his  life.  I  have  not  wished  to  invade  its 
sacredness. 

But  what  Wendell  Phillips  was  to  the  world  belongs  to  the 
world;  and  by  his  acts  among  men  he  has  bequeathed  a 
record  which  belongs  to  humanity,  and  which,  in  these 
pages,  I  have  endeavored  to  recall  in  a  permanent  form. 
If  I  have  erred  in  my  judgments,  I  trust  that  the  error  will 
be  attributed  to  that  sincere  admiration  for  the  great  agitator 
and  orator  which  I  cherished  from  earliest  years. 

In  the  preparation  of  these  chapters,  I  have  sought  infor- 
mation far  and  wide.  Every  person,  to  whom  I  have  ap- 
plied, has  freely  offered  his  or  her  assistance.  They  already 
have,  individually,  my  expressed  thanks. 

G.  L.  A. 
CAMBRIDGE,  April  1,  1884. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE. 

PAGE 

Memorials  of  the  Phillips  Family.— Rev.  George  Phillips.— 
Arrival  in  America.— Death  of  his  Wife.— Life  at  Water- 
town,  Mass. —Rev.  Samuel  Phillips  of  Rowley.  — His  Mar- 
riage.—  His  Sons.  —  John  Phillips  the  Merchant. — William 
Phillips.— His  Marriage  to  Margaret  Wendell.  —  Their  Son, 
John  Phillips,  the  Father  of  Wendell  Phillips.  —  His  School- 
days at  Andover,  Mass.  —  Enters  Harvard  College.  —  Studies 
Law. —  His  Marriage  to  Sally  Walley.  —  Public  Honors. — 
Chosen  the  First  Mayor  of  Boston. — His  Death.  —  Char- 
acter. —  His  Children  ........  17 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PERIOD  OF  YOUTH. 

The  Phillips  Mansion.  —Birth  of  Wendell  Phillips.  —His  Early 
Training.— Enters  the  Boston  Latin-School. —The  Boys  of 
that  Period.  —  Reminiscences  of  Schoolmates.  —  Death  of 
Adams  and  Jefferson. — Lafayette. — Webster's  Address  at 
Bunker  Hill. —Phillips' s  First  Impressions  of  Politics.— 
Mr.  Appleton's  Recollections. — Phillips  enters  Harvard  Col- 
lege. —Motley  and  Sumner.  —  The  Faculty.  —Life  at  College. 
—  Opposes  Temperance.  —  Courses  of  Reading. — Favorite 
Authors.  —  Enters  the  Junior  Class  at  the  Law  School.  — 
Methods  of  Instruction.  —  Cherishes  no  Fondness  for  the 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Law.  —  Graduation. — Admitted   to  the  Bar. — At  Lowell, 
Mass.  —  Benjamin  F.  Butler.  —  Practice  .        .        .        .        .27 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EARLY  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT. 

Garrison  establishes  "The  Liberator."  —  The  First  Number.— 
A  Dingy  Office. — Mr.  Garrison's  . Supporters. — Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher. — Jeremiah  Evarts. —  Oliver  Johnson's  Testimony. 

—  "  The  Liberator  "  creates  a  Stir  in  the  South.  —  The  Might 
of  King  Cotton.  —  Garrison's  Appeal  to  his  Countrymen. — 
The  New-England  Anti-Slavery  Society.  —  Story  of  its  Organi- 
zation. —  Preachers  and  Politics.  —  The  Rise  of  the  Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery  Society.  —  Growth  of  the  Movement.  —  The 
Reign  of  Terror  dawning.  —  The  Charleston  Riot.  —  Faneuil 
Hall  pays  a  Tribute  to  Slavery,  and  the  New-England  Pulpit 
Dumb! 45 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  GARRISON  MOB,  AND  ITS  RESULTS. 

Where  was  Wendell  Phillips  ?  —  The  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society 
hold  a  Meeting,  October,  1835.  —  Inflammatory  Handbills.  — 
"The  Commercial  Gazette"  excites  the  Mobocracy.  —  The 
Ladies  assemble  at  the  Hall.  —  The  Opening  Exercises.  —  The 
Mob  gain  Possession  of  the  Hall.  —  Mayor  Lyman  counsels  Ad- 
journment.—  Mr.  Garrison  seized  by  the  Rioters. — Dragged 
through  Boston's  Streets.  —At  City  Hall.  —  Conveyed  to  Jail. 

—  The  Outcome.— Phillips  views  the  Spectacle.  —  Learns  a 
Lesson.  —Foresees  his  Future.  —  His  Speech  on  the  Twentieth 
Anniversary  of  the  Mob    . 58 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  DEBUT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  Year  1837.  —  Slavery  the  Dominant  Power  of  the  Country. 

—  Earnestness  of  the  Abolitionists.  —  The  Lovejoy  Tragedy. 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAGE 

—  Story  of  the  Alton  Riots. —The  Tidings  reach  Boston.— 
Faneuil  Hall  refused  to  the  Indignant  Abolitionists.  —  Dr. 
Channing  appeals  to  the  Citizens  of  Boston. — The  Hall 
opened  at  Last.  —  A  Packed  Audience.  —  Resolutions.  — 
Harangue  of  Attorney-Gen.  Austin. — Its  Effect. — Reply  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  —  Great  Uproar  and  Excitement.  —  The 
Result  68 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST.  — MARRIAGE. 

Phillips' s  Aspirations.  —  The  Lyceum-Lecture  System.  —  Phillips 
delivers  his  First  Lecture.  —  "The  Lost  Arts." — Joins  the 
New-England  Anti-Slavery  Society.  —  Status  of  the  Colored 
People.  —  The  Chapmans.  —  Ann  Terry  Greene.  —  Phillips 
falls  in  Love.  — Marriage.  —  His  Domestic  Life.  —  The  Faith- 
ful Wife.— Phillips' s  First  Anti-Slavery  Lecture.  —  Recol- 
lections of  Edwin  Thompson 82 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  WORLD'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  CONVENTION. 

Begins  its  Sessions  June  12,  1840.  —  The  Rights  of  Women  dis- 
cussed in  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. — David  Lee 
Child's  Resolutions. — Prominent  Delegates. — Freemasons' 
Hall,  London.  —  Debate  on  the  Admission  of  Women.  — 
Speech  of  Mr.  Phillips.  —  The  Women  rejected.  —  Adverse 
Criticism,  and  Wisdom  of  Mr.  Phillips 93 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY^  CAUSE. 

Phillips  arrives  Home  from  Europe. — Limited  Acquaintance- 
ship.—  Letter  to  George  Thompson.  —  The  "Remond  Case." 
—  A  Petition  to  the  Legislature,  and  its  Result.  —  Arrest  of 
George  Latimer.  — The  Action  of  the  Legislature. — A  Yoice 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

in  Congress.  —Phillips  argues  for  Disunion.  — Discussion. — 

An  Interesting  Letter. — Mobs 102 

CHAPTER  IX. 

ERA  OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT. 

James  K  Polk  becomes  President  of  the  United  States.  —  The 
Annexation  of  Texas.  —  Origin  of  the  "Liberty  Party."  — 
The  Massachusetts  Legislature  of  1846. —  The  "Free-Soil 
Party." — Fleeing  from  Slavery. — An  Outrage  in  Boston. — 
Election  of  Gen.  Taylor.  —  Growth  of  the  Free-Soil  Party.  — 
The  Fugitive-Slave  Bill  proposed  in  Congress. — Debates. 

—  Apostasy  of  Daniel  Webster.  —  The  7th  of  March  Speech. 

—  Indignation  Meetings.  —  The  Act    signed   by  the   Presi- 
dent. —  Faneuil    Hall    speaks.  —  Charles    Sumner   chosen 
Senator. —  The  "Shadrach  Case."  — The   "Sims   Case."  — 
Public  Meetings.  —Election  of  Franklin  Pierce.  —  The  Dark- 
est Day  in  the  History  of  the  American  Republic    .        .        .     121 

CHAPTER  X. 

A  YEAR  OF  MOBS  AND  CONVENTIONS. 

Friends  of  Temperance  assemble  in  New  York,  1853. — Women 
excluded  from  the  Convention. — A  Busy  Autumn.  —  Com- 
ments of  "The  Tribune."  — Rev.  Antoinette  L.  Brown.— 
Her  Experience  at  the  Temperance  Convention.  —  Exclusion 
of  Miss  Brown  and  Mr.  Phillips.  —The  Woman's  Rights  Con- 
vention. —  Riotous  Disturbances.  —  Madame  Annekfe.  —  Phil- 
lips's  Bitter  Invective.  —  The  Convention  forced  to  adjourn 
sine  die 143 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PHILLIPS  AND  THE  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS  MOVEMENT. 

A  Plan  for  Action  first  proposed.  —  The  Call.  —  Responses.  — 
The  Worcester  Convention  of  1850.  —  Outline  of  the  Proceed- 
ings. —  Attitude  of  the  Press. —The  Convention  of  1851.— 


CONTENTS.  11 


Mr.  Phillips' s  Address.  —  Harriet  Martineau.  —  The  Legis- 
lature. —  The  Boston  Convention  of  1854.  —  Resolutions.  — 
The  Convention  of  1855.  —  Donations.  —  Assembling  of  the 
Seventh  National  Woman's  Rights  Convention  in  New  York, 
1856.  —  Mr.  Phillips' s  Speech.  —  Indifference  of  Political 
Parties  towards  the  Movement.  —  The  National  Convention 
of  1858.  — The  Convention  of  1859.— Mr.  Phillips  makes  a 
Stirring  Address.  — The  Legislatures  Memorialized.  —  The 
New -England  Convention. — Mr.  Phillips  again. — The 
"Drawing-Room"  Convention. — Mrs.  Dall's  Lectures. — 
The  Tenth  National  Convention,  1860. —Marriage  and  Divorce 
discussed. — Mr.  Phillips  opposes  Discussion.  —  The  Woman 
Question  laid  aside.  —  "  After  the  Slave  —  then  the  Woman,"  152 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  PREPARATION  FOR  WAR. 

The  Politics  of  1853.  —  Franklin  Pierce  President.  —  The  "  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska  Bill."  —The  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise.—  Sumner  foresees  the  "Beginning  of  the  End."  — 
A  Convention  of  the  Free-Soil  Party. — The  Republican 
Party.  —  Workings  of  the  Fugitive-Slave  Act.  —  Arrest  of 
Anthony  Burns.  —  A  Famous  Meeting.  —  Indictments  found 
against  Phillips,  Parker,  and  Others.  —  The  Result.  —A  Peti- 
tion for  the  Removal  of  "  Slave  Commissioner"  Loring.  — Mr. 
Phillips' s  Argument.  —  "The  Crime  against  Kansas." — As- 
sault on  Charles  Sumner. — Election  of  James  Buchanan. — 
The  Signs  of  the  Times.  — The  John  Brown  Raid.  — Mr. 
Phillips's  Eulogy.  —  His  Lecture  in  Brooklyn.  —  Mr.  Slack's 
Recollections.  —  Riotous  Feeling  in  New  York.  —  Anniversary 
Meeting  in  Boston.— A  Riot  prevented 170 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PHILLIPS  DURING  WAR-TIME. 

The  Outbreak  of  Rebellion.  —  Winter  of  1860-61.  — The  Fight 
for  Free  Speech  in  Boston.  —  The  Personal-Liberty  Act.  — 


12  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Status  of  the  Press.  —  The  Virginia  Peace  Commission. — 
President  Lincoln  inaugurated.  —  The  First  Gun.  —  The 
Country  aroused.— Phillips  at  New  Bedford.  —  The  Call  for 
Troops.  —  The  Patriotism  of  the  Press.  —  The  Memorable 
April  Twenty-first.  —  A  Morning  Meeting  in  State  Street.  — 
Wendell  Phillips  in  Music  Hall.  —  "  Under  the  Flag."  —  State 
Conventions.  —  The  Question  of  Slavery  ignored.  —  The  Year 
1862.  —The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  —  Katification  Meet- 
ing. —  Phillips  favors  arming  the  Colored  Men.  —  The  "  July 
Riot."  —Progress  of  the  War.  —The  Thirteenth  Amendment. 

—  Peace.  —  Return  of  Troops.  —  Woman  Suffrage.  —  Conven- 
tions of  1866-69 193 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

NEARING  THE  END. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment.  —  Phillips  nominated  for  Governor. 

—  Arraigns  the  Republican  Party.  —  Meeting  of  the  Reform 
League.  —  Convention.  —  A    Labor  Platform.  —  The  Butler 
Campaign  of  1871.  —  Phillips  at  Stein  way  Hall.  —  "  Courts 
and  Jails."  —  Phillips  supports  Grant.  —  Letter  to  the  Colored 
Citizens  of  Boston.  —  The  Days  of  the  White  Leaguers.  — 
Opposition  Meetings.  —  Phillips  on  Finance  in  1875.  —  Phillips 
on  Daniel  O'Connell.  —  Sir  Harry  Vane.  —  The  Grant-Sunmer 
Controversy.  — Phillips  on  License.  — Letter  to  "  the  Liberal 
Clergy."  —  Phillips  vs.  Crosby. —The  Irish  Crisis.  —  Phillips 
at  Cambridge.  —  Reminiscences  of   Dr.   Clarke.  —  Letter  of 
Parker  Pillsbury.  —  Declining  Years.  —  Phillips' s  Last  Speech. 

—  Illness.—  Death  and  Burial 257 

CHAPTER   XV. 

PHILLIPS  AS  A   PHILOSOPHER. 

Origin  of  the  "  Radical  Club."  —Phillips' s  Views  on  Religion.  — 
On  the  Christian  Name.  —  On  Heart  in  Religion.  —  Economic 
Laws.  —  Phillips  on  the  Boston  of  To-day.  —Phillips' s  Opin- 
ion of  Jonathan  Edwards  . 370 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Eulogies  and  Tributes 388 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

PORTRAIT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

ENGRAVED  ON  STEEL  EXPRESSLY  FOR  THIS  WORK     .  Frontispiece. 


THE  RENDITION  OF  ANTHONY  BURNS. 

MARCH  DOWN  STATE  STREET  ........    140 

THE  PHILLIPS  HOMESTEAD. 

THE  ESSEX-STREET  HOUSE 349 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS'S  LATE  RESIDENCE. 

THE  COMMON-STREET  HOUSE  ........    358 

IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

THE  REMAINS  LYING  IN  STATE  .    364 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE. 

Memorials  of  the  Phillips  Family.  —  Kev.  George  Phillips.  —  Arrival 
in  America.  —  Death  of  his  Wife.  —  Life  at  Watertown,  Mass.  — 
Rev.  Samuel  Phillips  of  Rowley.  —  His  Marriage.  —  His  Sons.  — 
John  Phillips  the  Merchant.  —William  Phillips.  —  His  Marriage  to 
Margaret  Wendell.  —  Their  Son,  John  Phillips,  the  Father  of  Wen- 
dell Phillips. — His  School-Days  at  Andover,  Mass.  — Enters  Har- 
vard College.— Studies  Law. —  His  Marriage  to  Sally  Walley.  — 
Public  Honors.  —  Chosen  the  First  Mayor  of  Boston.  —  His  Death. 
—  Character.  —  His  Children. 

"  There  is  &  pedigree  of  the  body  and  a  pedigree  of  the  mind." 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"TpEW  names  that  the  history  of  the  commonwealth 
•**-  of  Massachusetts  has  underscored  are  more  worthy 
of  being  cherished  than  that  of  the  Phillips  family; 
and  it  is  a  matter  for  public  congratulation,  that  there 
exist  to-day  such  worthy  monuments  for  its  perpetua- 
tion as  the  two  academies  of  Andover,  Mass.,  and 
of  Exeter,  N.H. 

17 


18        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

We  have  intimated  that  these  two  institutions  are 
monuments,  to  a  family.  They  are  so,  because  they 
were  built  up,  not  by  the  wisdom  and  self-denial  of 
one  individual  of  that  family,  but  by  the  very  remark- 
able unanimity  of  aim  and  coincidence  of  judgment 
of  six  members  of  it,  representing  three  generations. 
Still  more  essentially  are  they  so,  because  they  were 
the  outcome  of  a  marked  nobleness  of  spirit  and  ele- 
vation of  character,  that  have  not  ceased  to  distinguish 
representatives  of  the  Phillips  family  through  nine 
generations. 

The  progenitor  of  the  Phillips  family  in  America 
was  the  Rev.  George  Phillips,  son  of  Christopher  Phil- 
lips of  Rainham,  St.  Martin,  Norfolk  County,  England, 
mediocris  fortunce.  He  entered  Gonville  and  Caius 
College,  Cambridge,  April  20,  1610,  then  aged  seven- 
teen years,  and  received  his  bachelor's  degree  in  1613. 
He  gave  early  indications  of  deep  piety,  uncommon 
talents,  and  love  of  learning,  and  at  the  university  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  remarkable  progress  in  schol- 
arship, especially  in  theological  studies,  for  which  he 
manifested  a  partiality. 

After  his  graduation  he  was  settled  in  the  ministry 
at  Boxted,  Essex  County,  England;  but  his  strong 
attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  nonconformists 
brought  him  into  difficulties  with  some  of  his  parish- 
ioners; and,  as  the  storm  of  persecution  grew  more 
dark  and  threatening,  he  resolved  to  cast  his  lot  with 


ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE.  19 

the  Puritans,  who  were  about  to  depart  for  the  New 
World.  On  the  12th  of  April,  1630,  he,  with  his 
wife  and  two  children,  embarked  for  America  in  the 
"Arbella,"  as  fellow-passenger  with  Gov.  Winthrop, 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and  other  assistants  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  and  arrived  at  Salem  on 
the  12th  of  June,  where,  shortly  afterwards,  his  wife 
died,  and  was  buried  by  the  side  of  Lady  Arbella 
Johnson. 

Mr.  Phillips  was  admitted  "freeman,"  May  18, 1631; 
this  being  the  earliest  date  of  any  such  admission. 
For  fourteen  years  he  was  the  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Water  town,  a  most  godly  man,  and  an  influential  mem- 
ber of  the  small  council  that  regulated  the  affairs  of 
the  colony.  His  share  in  giving  form  and  character 
to  the  institutions  of  New  England  is  believed  to  have 
been  a  very  large  one.  He  died  on  the  1st  of  July, 
1644,  aged  about  fifty-one  years. 

The  son  of  the  foregoing,  born  in  Boxted,  England, 
in  1625,  and  graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  1650, 
became  in  1651  the  Rev.  Samuel  Phillips  of  Rowley, 
Mass.  He  continued  as  pastor  over  this  parish  for  a 
period  of  forty-five  years.  He  was  "  highly  esteemed  for 
his  piety  and  talents,  which  were  of  no  common  order ; 
and  he  was  eminently  useful,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
He  officiated  repeatedly  at  the  great  public  anniversa- 
ries, which  put  in  requisition  the  abilities  of  the  first 
men  in  the  New-England  colonies.  It  is  not  known 


20        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

that  any  of  his  productions  were  printed ;  yet  it  is  on 
record,  that,  in  1675,  he  preached  the  artillery  election 
sermon,  and  also  the  election  sermon  in  1678." 1 

In  September,  1687,  an  information  was  filed  by  one 
Philip  Nelson,  against  the  Rev.  Samuel  Phillips,  for 
calling  Randolph  "a  wicked  man ; "  and  for  this  " crime  " 
(redounding  to  his  honor)  he  was  committed  to  prison.2 

He  was  married  in  October,  1651,  to  Sarah  Applekm, 
the  daughter  of  Samuel  and  Mary  (Everhard)  Apple- 
ton  of  Ipswich.  He  died  April  22,  1696,  greatly  be- 
loved and  lamented.  His  inventory  amounted  to  nine 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  pounds  sterling.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1839,  a  chaste  and  handsome  marble  monument 
was  placed  over  the  remains  of  Mr.  Phillips  and  his 
wife,  in  the  burial-ground  at  Rowley,  by  the  Hon. 
Jonathan  Phillips  of  Boston,  their  great-great-great- 
grandson. 

He  left  two  sons,  the  younger  of  whom,  George 
(1664-1739,  Harvard  1686),  became  an  eminent  clergy- 
man, the  Rev.  George  Phillips,  first  of  Jamaica,  L.I., 
and  afterwards  of  Brookhaven.  The  elder  son,  Samuel, 
chose  the  occupation  of  a  goldsmith,  and  settled  in 
Salem.  It  is  from  this  Samuel  of  Salem  that  the 
two  Boston  branches  of  the  Phillips  family  have  de- 
scended. 

A  younger  son  of  Samuel,  the  Hon.  John  Phillips, 

i  See  Gage's  History  of  Rowley. 

8  See  Washburn's  Judicial  History  of  Massachusetts. 


ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE.  21 

was  born  June  22,  1701.  He  became  a  successful  mer- 
chant of  Boston,  was  a  deacon  of  Brattle-street  Church, 
a  colonel  of  the  Boston  Regiment,  a  justice  of  the  peace 
and  of  the  quorum,  and  a  representative  of  Boston  for 
several  years  in  the  General  Court.  He  married,  in 
1723,  Mary  Buttolph,  a  daughter  of  -Nicholas  Buttolph 
of  Boston.  She  died  in  1742;  and  he  next  married 
Abigail  Webb,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Mr.  Webb  of  Fair- 
field,  Conn.  He  died  April  19,  1768,  and  was  buried 
with  military  honors.  According  to  the  records,  he 
was  "a  man  much  devoted  to  works  of  benevolence." 

His  son,  William  Phillips  of  Boston,  was  born  Aug. 
29,  1737,  and  died  June  4,  1772.  In  1761  he  married 
Margaret  Wendell,  the  eleventh  and  youngest  child 
of  the  Hon.  Jacob  Wendell,  a  merchant,  and  one  of 
the  Governor's  Council.  His  widow  died  in  1823. 

John  Phillips,  the  only  son  of  William  and  Margaret, 
was  born  in  Boston  on  the  ancient  Phillips  place,  on 
the  26th  of  November,  1770.  His  mother  was  a  woman 
of  uncommon  energy  of  mind  as  well  as  of  ardent 
piety,  and  early  instilled  into  the  heart  of  her  son  the 
principles  of  religion  and  a  love  of  learning  and  of  his 
native  land.  She  placed  him,  at  the  early  age  of  seven 
years,  in  the  family  of  his  kinsman,  Lieut.-Gov.  Samuel 
Phillips  of  Andover,  where  he  remained  until  he  en- 
tered Harvard  College  in  1784.  In  this  excellent  and 
pious  family,  and  in  the  academy  under  the  charge  of 
the  learned  Dr.  Eliphalet  Pearson,  young  Phillips  ac- 


22        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

quired  the  rudiments  of  a  sound  scholarship  as  well 
as  that  urbane  and  conciliating  manner  which  was  so 
conducive  to  his  success  in  subsequent  life. 

Judge  Phillips  and  his  excellent  lady  took  a  lively 
interest  in  the  studies  of  their  ward.  They  examined 
him  from  time  to  time,  not  only  in  his  catechism,  which* 
was  then  regularly  taught,  but  also  in  respect  to  his 
literary  efforts  and  acquirements.  They  encouraged 
him  to  make  strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  a  high  rank  as 
a  scholar,  speaker,  gentleman,  and  Christian.  Their 
labors  were  not  lost.  On  leaving  Andover,  the  youth 
was  prepared  to  take  an  elevated  stand  in  college, 
which  he  maintained  to  the  completion  of  his  course, 
when  the  honor  of  pronouncing  the  salutatory  oration 
was  conferred  on  him  by  the  college  faculty. 

Mr.  Phillips  chose  the  profession  of  the  law,  and  soon 
gained  an  extensive  practice.  His  popularity  became 
such,  that  in  1794  he  was  invited  to  pronounce  the 
annual  Fourth  of  July  oration  before  the  people  of 
Boston.  "  This  production,"  says  a  writer,  "  bears  the 
finest  marks  of  intellectual  vigor."  Some  extracts 
from  it  have  found  their  way  into  the  school-books 
as  models  of  eloquence. 

In  this  same  year  Mr.  Phillips  was  married  to  Miss 
Sally  Walley,  daughter  of  Thomas  Walley,  Esq.,  a  re- 
spectable merchant  of  Boston.  On  the  establishment 
of  the  Municipal  Court  in  Boston,  in  1800,  he  was 
made  public  prosecutor,  and  in  1803  was  chosen  repre- 


ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE.  23 

sentative  to  the  General  Court.  The  next  year  he  was 
sent  to  the  Senate,  and  such  was  the  wisdom  of  his  po- 
litical measures,  and  the  dignity  of  his  bearing  towards 
all  parties,  that  he  continued  to  hold  a  seat  in  this  body 
every  successive  year  until  his  decease  ;  always  dis- 
charging his  duties,  either  as  a  debater  or  in  the  chair, 
to  which  he  was  ten  times  called,  most  creditably  to 
himself,  as  well  as  most  acceptably  to  his  constituents 
and  the  State. 

In  1809  Mr.  Phillips  was  appointed  judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas.  Three  years  later  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  corporation  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, and  in  1820  a  member  of  the  convention  for  the 
revision  of  the  State  Constitution.  In  this  able  and  dig- 
nified body  he  held  a  conspicuous  rank.  His  remarks 
upon  the  various  questions  which  arose  were  learned, 
judicious,  and  sometimes  rendered  all  the  more  effec- 
tive by  the  flashes  of  his  wit.  Speaking,  for  example, 
on  the  third  article  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  he  said  he 
hoped  they  would  not  be  like  the  man  whose  epitaph 
was,  "  I  am  well,  I  would  be  better,  and  here  I  am." 

The  next  year  the  town  of  Boston,  which  now  con- 
tained nearly  forty-five  thousand  inhabitants,  began  to 
agitate  in  good  earnest  the  question  of  adopting  a  city 
government.  A  committee  of  twelve,  of  which  Mr. 
Phillips  was  chairman,  drew  up  and  reported  a  city 
charter  for  the  town,  which  was  adopted  at  a  meeting 
held  March  4,  1822,  by  a  vote  of  2,797  to  1,881,  and 


24        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  result  formally  announced  on  the  7th  of  the  same 
month  by  a  proclamation  from  Gov.  Brooks. 

The  two  prominent  candidates  for  the  office  of 
mayor  were  Harrison  Gray  Otis  and  Josiah  Quincy, 
both  men  of  high  accomplishments,  and  enjoying  a 
large  share  of  public  confidence.  But  after  a  vote  had 
been  taken,  resulting  in  no  choice  of  mayor,  the  friends 
of  these  gentlemen  suddenly  agreed  on  Mr.  Phillips, 
who  at  the  town-meeting  held  on  the  16th  of  April, 
1822,  received  2,500  out  of  2,650  votes,  and  thus  became 
the  first  mayor  of  the  city  of  Boston. 

The  inauguration  occurred  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the 
1st  of  May  following.  The  ceremonies  of  the  occasion 
were  unusually  impressive ;  the  venerable  Dr.  Thomas 
Baldwin  invoking  the  favor  of  Heaven,  and  Chief  Jus- 
tice Isaac  Parker  administering  the  oath. 

In  discharging  the  duties  of  his  office,  Mr.  Phillips 
wisely  avoided  sumptuous  display  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  parsimonious  economy  on  the  other,  but  observ- 
ing that  juste  milieu  which  good  sense  dictated,  and  the 
spirit  of  our  republican  institutions  demanded,  suc- 
ceeded in  overcoming  all  prejudices  against  the  new 
form  of  municipal  government,  and  in  establishing  a 
precedent,  which,  followed  by  succeeding  mayors,  has 
saved  the  city  millions  of  dollars  of  needless  expense, 
and  has  served  as  a  worthy  example  to  many  other 
cities  in  this  country. 

Perceiving,  towards  the  expiration  of  his  first  term 


ANCESTEY  AND  PAEENTAGE.  25 

of  service,  that  his  health  was  beginning  to  fail,  Mr. 
Phillips  declined  being  a  candidate  for  re-election,  and 
on  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  May,  1823,  was  suddenly 
stricken  down  by  disease  of  the  heart ;  he  being  then 
in  the  fifty-third  year  of  his  age.  His  death  was  uni- 
versally lamented,  and  public  honors  were  paid  by  all 
parties  to  his  memory. 

John  Phillips  was  a  good  man,  true  as  steel,  and 
always  trustworthy  in  the  various  relations  of  life.  He 
lived  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  from  his  Word  received 
instruction  for  the  guidance  of  his  conduct.  He  lived 
in  stormy  times ;  yet  such  was  the  consistency  and  ele- 
vation of  his  character,  such  the  suavity  and  dignity 
of  his  manner,  such  the  kindness  of  his  heart,  the  clear- 
ness of  his  conceptions,  and  beauty  of  his  language, 
that  he  commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his 
political  opponents,  wielding  perhaps  as  great  an  influ- 
ence as  any  public  man  of  the  State  at  that  period; 
and  he  will  ever  stand  as  a  worthy  model  for  the  in- 
cumbents of  that  high  municipal  office,  which  his 
wisdom,  prudence,  virtue,  integrity,  and  eloquence 
adorned. 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  children  of  John 
and  Sally  (Walley)  Phillips :  - 

1.  Thomas  Walley,  born  Jan.  16,  1797. 

2.  Sarah  Hurd,  born  April  24,  1799. 

3.  Samuel,  born  Feb.  8,  1801. 


26        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

4.  Margaret,  born  Nov.  29,  1802. 

5.  Miriam,  born  Nov.  20,  18 — . 

6.  John  Charles,  born  Nov.  15,  1807. 
T.  George  William,  born  Jan.  3,  1810. 

8.  WENDELL,  born  Nov.  29,  1811. 

9.  Grenville  Tudor,  born  Aug.  14,  1816. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH. 

The  Phillips  Mansion.  —  Birth  of  Wendell  Phillips.  —  His  Early 
Training.—  Enters  the  Boston  Latin  School.  — The  Boys  of  that 
Period.  —  Reminiscences  of  Schoolmates.  —  Death  of  Adams  and 
Jefferson. —  Lafayette. —Webster's  Address  at  Bunker  Hill.— 
Phillips' s  First  Impressions  of  Politics.  —Mr.  Appleton's  Recollec- 
tions. —  Phillips  enters  Harvard  College.  —  Motley  and  Simmer.  — 
The  Faculty.  —  Life  at  College.  —  Opposes  Temperance.  —  Courses 
of  Reading.  —  Favorite  Authors.  —  Enters  the  Junior  Class  at  the 
Law-School.  —  Methods  of  Instruction.  —  Cherishes  no  Fondness 
for  the  Law. — Graduation. — Admitted  to  the  Bar.  —  At  Lowell, 
Mass.  — Benjamin  F.  Butler.  — Practice. 

"  The  greatest  praise  government  can  win  is,  that  its  citizens  know  their  rights, 
and  dare  to  maintain  them.  The  best  use  of  good  laws  is,  to  teach  men  to  trample 
bad  laws  under  their  feet. 

"  On  these  principles,  I  am  willing  to  stand  before  the  community  in  which  I  was 
born  and  brought  up,  —  where  I  expect  to  live  and  die,  —  where,  if  I  shall  ever  win 
any  reputation,  I  expect  to  earn  and  to  keep  it.  As  a  sane  man,  a  Christian  man, 
and  a  lover  of  my  country,  I  am  willing  to  be  judged  by  posterity."  — PHILLIPS,  1852. 

«'  Whoever  sees  farther  than  his  neighbor  is  that  neighbor's  servant,  to  lift  him  to 
such  higher  level.  Then,  power,  ability,  influence,  character,  virtue,  are  only  trusts 
with  which  to  serve  our  time."  — PHILLIPS,  1881. 

TN  a  large  mansion,  still  standing  on  the  lower  corner 
-  of  Beacon  and  Walnut  Streets,  Boston,  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  eighth  child  of  Hon.  John  and  Sally 
(Walley)  Phillips,  was  born,  on  the  29th  of  November^ 
1811. 


28        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

In  his  earliest  years,  surrounded  by  all  the  advan- 
tages which  the  wealth,  culture,  and  social  position  of 
his  parents  afforded,  the  boy  advanced  under  wise 
training.  To  his  father,  who  made  this  rule  for  all  his 
children,  "  Ask  no  man  to  do  for  you  any  thing  that 
you  are  not  able  and  willing  to  do  for  yourself,"  he 
was  indebted  for  those  lessons  of  self-dependence 
which  he  invariably  practised  in  after-life.  To  his 
mother,  who  never  wearied  in  searching  the  Scriptures, 
and  who  believed  in  the  value  of  early  religious  im- 
pressions, he  owed  that  simplicity,  that  earnest  sin- 
cerity, and  that  remarkable  disposition  to  stand  by  the 
right,  which  afterwards  developed  itself  with  such 
force,  and  produced  such  important  effects. 

In  August,  1822,  he  entered  the  Boston  Latin  School, 
which  was  then  located  at  the  corner  of  Chapman 
Place  and  School  Street,  —  a  site  now  occupied  by  the 
Parker  House.  The  late  B.  A.  Gould  was  the  head- 
master. Those  of  his  schoolmates  who  survive  re- 
member Wendell  as  at  that  time  a  boy  of  about  eleven 
years  of  age,  finely  formed,  vigorous,  and  quite  tall  for 
his  years.  Had  Puritan  Boston  cultivated  muscle,  he 
would  have  excelled  in  athletic  exercises ;  but  muscle, 
was  at  that  time  at  a  discount. 

Many  of  the  youths  of  that  period  were  pale  and 
puny,  —  forced  to  be  so  by  the  absurd  notions  of  their 
ancestors,  —  who  walked  sedately,  with  their  bundles 
of  books,  to  and  from  school,  who  never  loitered  by  the 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  29 

way,  nor  snowballed,  nor  skated,  nor  kicked  foot-ball, 
nor  swam  in  the  harbor  of  the  Charles.  They  were 
the  heirs  to  all  the  promises  of  intellectual  greatness. 
They  were  not  all  as  wise,  however,  as  they  looked. 

Bnt  Phillips  was  neither  pale  nor  puny.  He  had  a 
fine  physique,  and  his  mind  was  as  brilliant  as  his  body 
was  vigorous.  "What  first  led  me  to  observe  him," 
says  a  fellow-student,  "  and  fixed  him  in  my  memory, 
was  his  elocution ;  and  I  soon  came  to  look  forward  to 
declamation,  day  with  interest,  mainly  on  his  account ; 
though  many  were  admirable  speakers.  The  pieces 
spoken  were  mainly  such  as  would  excite  patriotic 
feelings  and  an  enthusiasm  for  freedom. 

"  I  remember  distinctly  the  hot  summer  day  when, 
the  windows  of  the  schoolhouse  all  open,  we  heard  the 
tolling  of  the  bells  for  the  death  of  Adams  and  Jeffer- 
son. We  were  informed  why  they  were  tolling ;  and, 
in  those  days  of  belief  in  special  providences,  it  was  for 
us  a  remarkable  providence  that  they  died  on  that  day 
they  had  made  sacred,  and  that,  in  their  deaths,  they 
were  not  divided ;  and  it  added  to  the  solemnity  of  the 
occasion,  that  Heaven  thus  seemed  to  set  the  seal  of  its 
approbation  upon  their  lives  and  their  work. 

"  What  have  since  been  sneered  at  as  '  glittering 
generalities,'  were  to  us  great  truths;  and  with  the 
men  whose  4  souls  were  tried/  and  who  gave  or  risked 
their  lives  for  those  truths,  many  of  us  claimed  a  near 
relationship.  Some  of  us  had  heard  our  grandfathers 


30        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

sing  that  inspired  battle-hymn  of  the  Revolution,  com- 
posed by  Judge  Niles  of  Vermont,  beginning  with  the 
.lines,  — 

1  Why  should  vain  mortals  tremble  at  the  sight  of 
Death  and  destruction  on  the  field  of  battle  ? ' 

—  a  hymn  worthy  of  the  cause  it  was  written  to  sus- 
tain, and  worthy  of  preservation,  from  its  associations, 
as  the  battle-hymn  of  the  republic. 

"  We  had  heard  them  tell  of  that  bitter  winter  en- 
campment in  New  York,  when  the  snow  fell  to  five 
feet  on  a  level;  when  they  were  short  of  provisions, 
without  shoes,  nearly  naked,  many  of  them,  and  hud- 
dled together  in  heaps  under  straw  for  warmth ;  when 
officers  as  well  as  privates  were  despondent,  and  only 
a  belief,  stimulated  by  the  eloquent  pen  of  Paine,  that 
those  'glittering  generalities'  were  rights  worthy  of 
the  effort  and  the  sacrifice,  kept  them  from  despair  and 
desertion.  We  could  realize  how  intense  their  enthu- 
siasm, how  bright  their  hopes,  at  the  surrender  of  Bur- 
goyne  and  Cornwallis. 

"  We  had  stood  in  line  on  Tremont  Street,  with  rib- 
bons, on  which  were  portraits  of  Lafayette,  pinned  to 
our  jackets,  when  that  enthusiast  for  liberty,  then  a 
grand  old  man,  revisited  the  land  to  which,  in  the  hot 
blood  of  youth,  he  had  given  his  sword;  wondering 
at  the  enthusiastic  greetings  of  the  crowds,  and  at  the 
evidences  of  thrift  and  prosperity,  which,  as  we  were 
told,  led  him  to  inquire,  'Where  are  your  poor?'  so 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  31 

unconscious  of  any  great  merit  for  what  he  had  done, 
that  he  was  disposed  to  decline  the  offer  of  a  national 
ship,  and  take  passage  in  a  private  vessel ;  little  dream- 
ing that  his  journey  was  to  prove  a  triumphal  proces- 
sion such  as  the  world  had  never  seen. 

"And  we  had  walked  over  the  bridge  to  Charlestown 
and  Bunker  Hill,  and  had  heard  Webster,  then  the 
embodiment  of  eloquence  and  patriotism ;  while  before 
him  were  the  venerable  men,  among  whom  Lafayette 
was  seated,  the  survivors  of  those  who,  on  that  mem- 
orable night,  had  thrown  up  the  breastworks  that  time 
had  not  levelled,  —  Webster,  whose  philippic  against 
the  slave-trade  at  Plymouth,  in  1820,  every  school-boy 
knew  by  heart :  — 

"'I  hear  the  sound  of  the  hammer.  I  see  the  smoke  of  the 
furnaces  where  manacles  and  fetters  are  still  forged  for  human 
limbs.  I  see  the  visages  of  those  who,  by  stealth  and  at  midnight, 
labor  in  this  work  of  hell,  foul  and  dark  as  may  become  the  arti- 
ficers of  such  instruments  of  misery  and  torture.  If  the  pulpit  be 
silent  whenever  or  wherever  there  may  be  a  sinner  bloody  with  this 
guilt,  within  the  hearing  of  its  voice,  the  pulpit  is  false  to  its  trust.' 

"  Words  of  fire  these  that  burned  into  the  souls  of 
boys  like  Phillips  those  '  prejudices '  which  Webster 
in  vain  begged  them  to  'conquer,'  when  he  had  sold 
himself  to  the  slave-power  for  a  mere  nomination  to  the 
presidency  that  was  never  made,  and,  for  such  a  con- 
sideration, was  not  fit  to  be  made." 

Educated  among   such   influences,  never  was  pupil 


32        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

more  faithful  to  the  teachings  of  his  master  than  the 
thoughtful  boy  to  these  burning  words  of  the  then  fore- 
most man  in  New  England. 

The  recollections  of  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Appleton  may 
be  given  in  this  connection :  — 

44  Phillips  was  an  old  friend  of  mine.  I  remember 
how  we  used  to  play  together  long  ago,  and  the  recol- 
lection is  very  pleasant  indeed.  He  was  a  fine,  manly 
little  fellow ;  and  I  was  very  proud  of  him  as  a  play- 
mate. Wendell  Phillips,  J.  Lothrop  Motley,  and  I 
used  to  play  together  in  the  garret  of  the  Motley 
House ;  and  I  remember  that  their  favorite  pastime 
used  to  be,  to  strut  about  in  any  fantastic  costume  they 
could  find  in  the  corners  of  the  old  attic,  and  shout 
scraps  of  poetry  and  dialogue  at  each  other. 

44  It  was  a  fine  sight  to  see  them,  for  both  were  noble- 
looking  fellows ;  and  even  then  Wendell's  voice  was  a 
very  pleasant  one  to  listen  to,  and  his  gestures  as 
graceful  as  could  be. 

"After  that  I  knew  him  at  the  Latin  School,  and 
later  at  college.  I  remember  at  college  that  we  got  a 
notion  that  Phillips  was  laboring  under  some  religious 
excitement ;  and  so,  to  revive  him  a  little,  we  got  him 
into  the  Porcellian  ;  and  he  soon  became  our  president. 
He  was  well  liked  at  college,  and  his  radicalism  did  not 
then  develop  strongly  enough  to  make  him  in  any  way 
unpopular.  He  was  always  a  fine  elocutionist,  and 
elegant  in  his  manner  of  delivery." 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  33 

In  those  clays  the  course  at  the  Latin  School  was 
one  of  five  years.  According  to  the  years  of  study, 
the  school  was  divided  into  five  classes,  and  each  class 
into  three  divisions.  The  curriculum  included,  —  in 
Greek,  Valpy's  "Greek  Grammar,"  the  "Delectus  Sen- 
tentiarum  Grsecarum,"  Jacobs's  "  Greek  Reader,"  the 
"Four  Gospels,"  and  two  books  of  Homer's  "Iliad; "  in 
Latin,  Adams's  "Latin  Grammar,"  "Liber  Primus," 
"Epitome  Historic  Grsecae,"  "Viri  Romse,"  "Phsedri 
Fabulse,"  "Cornelius  Nepos,"  Ovid's  "Metamorphoses," 
Sallust's  "Catiline,"  and  "  Jugur  thine  War,"  Caesar, 
Virgil,  Cicero's  "  Select  Orations,"  the  "  Agricola," 
and  "  Germania "  of  Tacitus,  and  the  "  Odes "  and 
"  Epodes "  of  Horace ;  in  the  study  of  mythology, 
Tooke's  "  Pantheon  of  the  Heathen  Gods  "  served  as 
the  text-book ;  Lacroix  was  used  in  arithmetic ;  and  in 
reading,  Lindley  Murray's  "  English  Reader." 

Having  finished  a  course  at  the  Latin  School  before 
he  was  sixteen,  he  entered  Harvard  College,  and  was 
graduated,  in  1831,  in  the  class  with  Motley,  the  future 
historian  of  the  Netherlands.  Phillips  and  Motley 
were  warm  personal  friends;  and  both  ranked  high, 
among  their  fellows  on  account  of  their  beauty,  elegant 
manners,  and  social  position.  In  the  class  preceding 
was  Charles  Sumner,  whom  Phillips  knew  while  they 
were  both  in  the  Latin  School. 

When  Phillips  entered  college,  Rev.  John  T.  Kirk- 
land  was  president ;  but  in  1829  he  was  succeeded  by 


34        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

Josiah  Quincy.  Among  the  professors  were  Edward 
T.  Charming  in  rhetoric,  George  Ticknor  in  French  and 
Spanish  literature,  John  S.  Popkin  in  Greek,  George 
Otis  in  Latin,  Levi  Hodge  in  logic  and  metaphysics, 
and  John  Farrar  in  mathematics  and  natural  philoso- 
phy. Of  the  corps  of  instructors  then  in  service,  not 
one  survives. 

At  college,  Phillips  was  a  fair  student.  He  was  a 
daily  boxer  and  fencer,  and  acquired  some  skill  in  both 
departments  of  this  manly  art.  He  was  never  in  the 
opposition  ;  never  got  into  trouble  on  account  of  his 
dissent  from  the  opinions  of  others;  and  was  so  far 
from  inclining  to  radicalism,  either  in  politics  or  in 
social  life,  that,  after  having  been  elected  president  of 
the  "  Hasty-Pudding  Club,"  he  was  made  president 
of  another  exclusive  society,  known  as  the  "  Gentle- 
men's Club."  He  had  so  little  interest  in  reform,  that 
he  succeeded  in  defeating  —  or  bears  the  infamy,  as  he 
himself  phrased  it,  of  having  defeated  —  the  first  propo- 
sition to  establish  a  temperance  society  at  Harvard. 

But  it  was  of  the  man  considered  so  sarcastic  and 
critical. and  harsh  in  after-life,  that  a  classmate  said, 
"Whenever  we  are  abusing  a  fellow,  Phillips  always 
finds  something  good  to  say  of  him."  To  his  class, 
it  was  the  greatest  surprise  when  he  joined  the  anti- 
slavery  movement. 

During  his  college-life,  Phillips  rarely  read  speeches, 
or  even  had  any  taste  for  oratory.  But  debate,  and  the 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  35 

arguments  which  i't  necessitated,  was  always  his  hobby. 
His  favorite  study  was  history,  including  a  lively  inter- 
est in  genealogy,  and  even  in  heraldry. 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  Phillips  one  day,  in  speaking  of  his 
college-life,  "  if  I  had  followed  my  own  bent,  I  should 
have  given  my  time  to  mechanics  or  history ;  and  my 
mother  used  to  say,  that,  when  I  became  a  lawyer,  a 
good  carpenter  was  spoiled." 

An  intimate  friend,  writing  in  1874  of  Phillips's 
college-life,  says, 

"  Mr.  Phillips,  when  at  college,  gave  a  year  to  the  study  of  the 
English  Revolution  of  1640.  He  studied  every  thing  relating  to 
it,  from  Clarendon  to  Godwin,  —  every  memoir,  every  speech,  every 
novel,  every  play,  that  was  accessible  to  him,  whether  written  at 
the  time,  or  the  scene  of  which  was  laid  in  those  years. 

"  He  gave  another  year  to  the  study  of  biographies  and  memoirs 
of  the  age  of  George  the  Third,  covering  our  own  Revolution 
with  the  same  completeness.  He  next  studied  Dutch  history  with 
equal  thoroughness  as  far  as  English  literature  afforded  the  means 
of  doing  so.  Proverbs  were  his  especial  delight.  The  character 
of  a  young  man  is  best  known  by  a  knowledge  of  his  heroes. 
Those  of  Mr.  PhillirJs  in  English  history  were  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
Andrew  Mar  veil,  Pym,  Sir  Harry  Vane,  Cromwell,  Chesterfield, 
De  Foe,  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague,  John  Hunter,  James  Watt, 
and  Brindley.  In  American  history  they  were  Jay,  Franklin, 
Hamilton,  Samuel  Adams,  and  Eli  Whitney. 

"  Among  novelists,  Richardson  was  a  great  favorite ;  and  Scott 
he  knew  almost  by  heart.  In  Latin  literature,  Tacitus  and  Juve- 
nal were  his  favorites.  In  French  literature,  Sully,  Rochefou- 
cauld, De  Retz,  Pascal,  Tocqueville,  Guizot,  and  Victor  Hugo. 


36        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

In  English,  his  pets  were  Swift,  Ben  Jonson,  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Massinger,  Milton,  Southey  (in  '  The  Doctor '),  Lamb,  the  elder 
Disraeli,  and  'all  of  Horace  Walpole.' 

"He  was  late  in  opening  to  Shakspeare.  Then  he  regarded 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  as  the  first  of  modern  poets,  an  opin- 
ion that  he  has  not  changed.  To-day  he  thinks  that  George  Eliot 
and  Charlotte  Bronte  see  life  truer  and  deeper  than  either  Dickens 
or  Thackeray,  though  they  lack  the  artistic  skill  of  their  more 
celebrated  contemporaries." 

We  are  indebted  to  Rev.  Edgar  Buckingham  of  Deer- 
field,  Mass.,  a  classmate  of  Mr.  Phillips,  and  for  many 
years  the  class-secretary  of  the  class  of  1831,  for  the 
following  interesting  reminiscences.  They  begin  with 
the  days  at  the  Latin  School. 

"Any  one  may  be  happy  in  having  been  the  schoolmate  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  We  were  in  the  same  class,  in  school  at  i  col- 
lege, for  five  years.  Comparatively  few  men  can  tell  of  him  when 
he  was  a  boy.  But,  to  my  mind  then,  he  was  the  most  beautiful 
person  I  had  ever  seen,  —  handsome,  indeed,  in  form  and  feature  ; 
but  what  I  mean  by  his  beauty  was  his  grace  of  character,  his 
kindly,  generous  manners,  his  brightness  of  mind,  his  perfect 
purity  and  whiteness  of  soul.  His  face  was  very  fair,  though  it 
could  not  have  been  called  pale ;  and  it  had  a  radiance  from  which 
shone  forth  the  soul  that  dwelt  within.  He  was  a  good  scholar, 
and  the  happiest  and  most  charming  of  companions,  either  in  play 
or  talk.  I  shall  never  forget  when,  in  our  play  around  the  houses 
in  Montgomery  Place,  then  unfinished,  I  tumbled  down  an  open 
cellar-way,  he  was  down  first  to  see  if  I  was  hurt.  In  school-time, 
besides  Horace  and  Homer,  the  boys  did  a  great  deal  of  talking. 
We  drew  pictures.  We  carved  alabaster  into  shapes  to  stamp  let- 


THE  PEKIOD   OF  YOUTH.  37 

ters  with,  in  days  when  letters  for  the  mail  were  sealed  with  wax 
or  wafers.  The  seats  on  which  we  sat  during  our  last  year  were 
so  placed  in  regard  to  the  desk  of  the  teacher,  that  the  teacher 
could  not  conveniently  watch  us  unless  he  was  particularly  anxious 
to  do  so ;  and  I  think  he  had  a  fellow-feeling  with  us,  and  allowed 
us  to  talk  unless  we  disturbed  others  by  noise.  The  subject  of  our 
conversation  at  that  time  —  boys  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age 
—  was  the  trinity,  atonement,  or  some  other  point  of  orthodox  the- 
ology. Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  was  at  that  time  reigning  as  sovereign 
over  the  orthodox  churches  of  Boston,  and  was  in  the  height  of  his 
power  and  influence.  Large  numbers  of  persons  were  attending 
his  church  in  Hanover  Street,  to  listen  to  the  terrors  of  his  elo- 
quence, —  some  from  the  Unitarian  connection,  among  them  some 
of  the  nearest  relations  of  Wendell ;  and  he  himself  was  drawn  in 
as  a  convert.  I  suppose  he  needed  no  conversion  from  the  moral 
education  his  mother  had  given  him,  and  from  the  dispositions  he 
inherited  from  his  ancestors ;  but  he  probably  obtained  clearer 
ideas  of  duty  and  consecration  from  the  instruction  he  received, 
and  the  excitement  through  which  he  passed,  and  became,  for  the 
most  part,  fixed  in  some  ideas  of  a  great,  important  life.  At  any 
rate,  his  conversion,  it  is  plain,  exercised  no  permanent  narrowing 
influences  over  him.  It  did  not,  by  overwhelming  views  of  a  future 
world,  make  him,  as  a  technical  conversion  does  some,  uninterested 
in  people's  welfare  in  the  present  life,  nor,  as  it  often  does,  make 
theology  superior  to  philanthropy.  I  have  not  learned  that  he  ever 
changed  his  theological  opinions.  It  has  not  been  opinion  that  has 
made  him  the  man  he  has  shown  himself  to  be,  and  no  sectarian 
could  argue  in  favor  of  a  special  creed  from  the  life  and  labors 
Mr.  Phillips  has  pursued.  At  one  time,  in  his  middle  life,  he  re- 
nounced the  church,  as  at  present  constituted  or  conducted ;  and 
to  a  friend,  a  minister,  who  said  to  him,  'I  suppose  you  think 
"laborare  est  orare"  —  "your  working  is  your  prayer,"  or  otherwise, 


38      LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"your  devotion  to  duty  is  your  devoutness,"  —  tie  replied,  'Yes; 
but  I  think  much  of  the  "  orare"  the  praying,  too.'  But  to  return 
to  his  earlier  days.  The  excitement  of  the  revival  gradually  passed 
off  in  him ;  that  is,  in  a  few  years.  But  his  conversion  for  quite  a 
while  made  a  deep  impression  on  his  companions,  awakening  their 
reverence  —  the  word  is  not  too  strong  —  for  this  religious  boy, 
and  probably  leading  some  on  for  a  time  in  interesting  views  of 
the  religious  life. 

"His  evident  religiousness  continued  for  some  time  after  his 
entrance  into  college.  I  remember  well  his  appearance  of  deep 
devoutness  during  morning  and  evening  prayers  in  the  chapel, 
which  so  many  attended  only  to  save  their  credit  with  the  gov- 
ernment. Doddridge's  'Expositor'  Wendell  bore  to  college  in 
his  freshman  year,  —  a  present,  I  think,  from  his  mother,  a  new 
volume,  —  to  be  his  help  in  daily  thought  and  prayer.  His  inter- 
est in  his  studies  was  never  remitted  through  his  college  course : 
and  to  the  last  he  stood  high  in  a  class,  the  largest  but  one  that 
had  at  that  time  ever  been  graduated  from  Harvard ;  and  its  mem- 
bers, however  justly  or  unjustly,  believed  that  their  eighth  or  tenth 
scholar  would  have  been  first  in  any  other  class.  Motley  the  his- 
torian was  also  a  member  of  it,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Phillips. 
But,  out  of  the  first  ten  scholars,  a  large  proportion  died  in  their 
youth,  and  despoiled  the  class  of  power  to  prove  by  subsequent 
achievements  and  by  public  fame  that  their  self-flattery  was  really 
just.  Phillips  was  really  handsome,  as  I  have  said,  in  figure  and 
feature  a  young  Apollo.  I  remember,  in  his  room,  measurements 
we  made  of  him  to  see  how  near  his  proportions  came  to  that  ex- 
ample of  Grecian  ideas  of  manly  beauty. 

"  He  was  of  a  wealthy  family ;  and  with  manly  beauty,  with  a 
most  attractive  face,  *  a  smile  that  was  a  benediction,'  with  man- 
ners of  superior  elegance,  with  conversation  filled  with  the  charms 
of  literature,  with  biography  and  history,  full  of  refined  pleasantry, 


THE  PERIOD  OF  YOUTH.  39 

) 

with  never  a  word  or  thought  that  the  purest  might  not  know 
and  listen  to,  it  was  no  wonder  that  his  society  was  courted,  and 
especially  by  those  who  had  wealth  at  their  command,  and  still 
more  by  those  young  men  that  came  from  the  South.  It  is  said 
that  he  is  proud ;  that  he  was  a  born  patrician.  In  a  good  sense 
of  the  words,  he  was  a  born  patrician :  in  the  sense  of  the  French 
expression,  « noblesse  oblige,1  he  felt  the  responsibilities  of  his  birth 
and  education,  —  his  responsibility  to  keep  himself  pure,  upright, 
and  good.  I  would  not  say  that  he  never  developed  at  any  time 
any  thing  of  worldly  pride  also.  I  believe  he  did  look  down 
with  scorn  on  that  vulgarity,  that  form  of  professed  democracy, 
whose  virtue  only  was  to  envy  those  better  and  purer  than  them- 
selves as  well  as  loftier  in  position.  I  never  knew  that  he  scorned 
any  one  who  was  merely  poor.  But  it  happened,  as  one  of  the 
strangest  of  all  human  phenomena,  that  this  young  man,  who,  in 
all  his  public  life,  has  been  the  defender  of  the  trodden-down  and 
despised,  was  the  especial  pet,  in  his  junior  and  senior  years  in 
college,  of  the  aristocracy  in  that  institution.  Indeed,  he  had  the 
credit  of  being  their  leader :  they  put  him  up  to  it.  The  democ- 
racy of  the  class  became  excited  to  the  highest  degree, — for  reasons 
that  I  do  not  now  recall,  and  believe  I  never  knew  (and  I  dare  say 
there  were  none),  —  and  it  was  determined  to  put  Phillips  and 
others  of  his  associates  down.  I  think  he  used  some  of  his  fine 
scorn  at  that  time.  We  had  then  a  military  organization,  a  great 
pride  of  ours,  —  the  Harvard  Washington  corps;  and  though  our 
uniform  was  black  coats  and  white  pantaloons,  and  the  officers  had 
golden-appearing  buttons  on  their  coats,  with  the  usual  feathers, 
epaulets,  and  sashes,  yet,  in  my  mind  then,  no  company,  however 
richly  uniformed,  made  a  handsomer  appearance.  When  the  time 
came  for  election  of  officers  by  the  class  to  which  we  belonged,  a 
great  struggle  took  place.  It  ended  in  a  compromise.  Phillips 
was  not  chosen  captain.  A  young  man  from  the  South,  yet  not  of 


40      LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  acknowledged  aristocracy,  —  a  young  man  of  herculean  stature 
and  proportion,  and  one  who  had  never  taken  sides  in  this  social 
quarrel,  and  whom  the  whole  college  would  have  said  was  properly 
the  man  for  the  place,  —  was  chosen ;  and  Phillips  became  one  of 
the  highest  officers, — lieutenant,  I  think.  I  never  asked  him  what 
he  learned  about  Southern  pride  and  assumption  in  those  days.  But 
was  it  not  singular,  that,  from  having  been  the  most  admired  com- 
panion and  most  ardent  champion  of  Southern  men  in  his  youth, 
he  should  have  become  in  after-years  an  opponent  of  Southern 
principles,  —  than  whom  there  has  been  none  more  powerful  in  the 
country?  I  would  like  to  tell  my  readers  what  dear  companion  as 
I  suppose  it  has  been,  —  the  pride  of  his  heart,  his  counsellor  and 
his  support,  —  that  suggested  or  brought  about  the  change.  But 
he  has  a  right  to  keep  that  secret  sacred  to  himself.  But,  if  he  was 
born  a  patrician,  he  had  a  nature,  which,  by  birth,  was  ready  for 
the  upspringing  from  within  of  a  true  Christian  democracy.  Dur- 
ing the  days  of  his  boyhood  T  should  never  have  imagined  that  he 
had  any  conception  of  the  superiority  of  one  man  over  another, 
except  as  superiority  was  made  by  mind  and  soul.  And  if  labor- 
ing-men now  who  may  ever  be  in  his  company,  while  he  is  ready 
to  give  his  life  for  their  service,  feel,  that,  while  he  is  with  them 
and  for  them,  he  is  not  of  them,  that  sentiment  of  theirs  is,  as  the 
philosophers  say,  a  subjective  feeling  of  their  own.  Many  think 
he  is  not  of  them,  because  they  cannot  conceive  how  such  a  man,  so 
born,  and  so  accomplished,  can  possibly  have  so  much  goodness  as 
to  know  a  man  only  for  his  humanity,  and  not  for  his  money  and 
his  show.  However,  such  considerations  venture  beyond  recollec- 
tions of  school-boy  days." 

Mr.  Buckingham  supplements  the  foregoing  facts  by 
the  following  statements :  — 

"  In  an  acquaintance  that  began  in  1826,  and  has  now  extended 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  41 

over  nearly  sixty  years,  I  always  admired  him  [Phillips]  for  purity 
and  goodness.  His  life  was  beautiful,  if  I  understood  him  right. 
He  was  beautiful,  too,  in  form  and  face,  in  expression  of  counte- 
nance, in  tones  of  voice,  in  attractiveness  of  manners  and  of  con- 
versation. Without  exercising  the  arts  of  fascination,  he  inspired 
the  confidence,  I  think,  of  all  who  became  acquainted  with  him ; 
and  he  was  admired,  and  he  was  loved.  His  friends  were  charmed 
with  him :  all  felt  themselves  at  ease  in  his  presence,  as  with  one 
who  had  no  secret  purposes,  whose  heart  was  open  to  all,  —  a  heart 
which  men  might  examine,  and  angels  might  love  to  look  upon. 

"Perhaps  it  was  the  natural  beauty  of  his  outward  manners 
and  appearance,  that  in  early  life  attracted  me ;  but  it  was  more 
his  moral  excellence.  He  was  a  faithful  student  at  his  books. 
He  s^oke  often  of  his  mother,  and  her  care  over  him,  and  her 
counsels.  He  was  a  lover  of  outdoor  sports  :  he  helped  others  to 
enjoy  them.  He  was  generous,  and  even  chivalrous,  with  others 
at  play.  I  don't  think  he  was  ever  reproved  for  any  carelessness 
or  other  fault  in  the  schoolroom,  nor  was  ever  complained  of 
among  the  boys  for  any  unfairness.  I  do  not  mean  to  exaggerate 
his  excellences.  I  give  you  my  impressions,  and  I  am  willing  all 
the  truth  should  be  known.  In  college-life  I  knew  that  he  devel- 
oped some  faults;  for  born  of  what  might  be  called  a  patrician 
family,  if  there  were  any  such,  he  was  courted  by  the  wealthy  and 
elegant,  whose  lives  were  not  in  all  things  correct:  but  I  never 
knew  of  any  vice  in  him.  He  resisted  the  vulgar  in  their  man- 
ners, and  may  have  been  haughty  towards  them ;  but  I  never 
knew,  or  do  not  recall,  an  instance  of  neglect  or  dislike  towards 
any  whose  lives  and  conversation  were  correct." 

The  class  of  1831,  at  the  time  of  its  graduation, 
numbered  sixty-five  members.  Of  these,  several  after- 
wards achieved  eminence  in  different  walks  in  life,  as, 


42      LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

for  example,  Francis  Gardner,  long  the  beloved  head- 
master of  the  Boston  Latin-School;  John  Lothrop 
Motley,  already  mentioned;  George  C.  Shattuck,  M.D.; 
Nathaniel  Bradstreet  Shurtleff,  and  others. 

In  September,  1881,  Phillips  became  a  member  of 
the  junior  class  in  the  Harvard  Law  School. 

This  school  grew  out  of  the  royal  professorship  of 
law,  which  was  established  in  1815.  It  was  organized 
as  a  distinct  department  two  years  later,  but  did  not 
begin  to  show  much  life  until  1829,  when  Judge  Story 
and  John  H.  Ashmun  were  appointed  professors.  At 
that  time  the  method  of  teaching  was,  not  only  "to 
illustrate  the  topic  of  study  by  decided  or  supposed 
cases,  and  to  comment  upon  and  criticise  the  text-book, 
but  also  to  examine  most  of  the  students  quite  closely 
upon  the  lesson  of  the  day.  The  exercise  was  a  reci- 
tation rather  than  a  lecture,  —  a  mode  of  instruction 
which  becomes  inconvenient  when  a  professional  school 
is  largely  attended." 

In  October,  1832,  Dane  Hall,  which  was  specially 
erected  for  the  law-department  of  the  university,  was 
opened  for  use.  Prior  to  this,  instruction  had  been 
given  in  No.  1,  College  House.  At  the  time  of  the 
opening,  the  school  numbered  forty  students ;  and 
these  were  divided  into  three  classes,  —  the  senior, 
middle,  and  junior. 

Of  Phillips's  course  at  the  law-school,  many  remem- 
brances are  cherished  by  his  surviving  fellows.  It 


THE  PERIOD   OF  YOUTH.  43 

is  the  testimony  of  all,  that,  like  his  intimate  friend 
Sumner,  he  had  no  particular  fondness  for  the  law, 
except  as  a  science,  and  that  he  did  not  much  care 
whether  or  not  he  ever  entered  upon  its  practice. 

In  September,  1834,  he  was  graduated  from  the  law- 
school,  and  received  his  professional  degree.  A  few 
weeks  later  he  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the  Suffolk 
bar. 

Phillips  was  no  longer  a  boy;  from  a  well-blessed 
and  blooming  youth  he  had  now  passed  into  the  matu- 
rity of  manhood.  Genius  surely  he  had,  united  to  all 
the  gifts  and  graces  of  Boston's  most  exclusive  culture. 
This  college  graduate,  elegant  as  Antinous,  and  as 
beautiful  as  Apollo,  carried  with  him  everywhere  the 
unmistakable  atmosphere  of  classic  training. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  Phillips  went  to 
Lowell,  Mass.,  and  continued  his  studies  in  a  more 
practical  sort  of  way  in  the  office  of  Thomas  Hopkin- 
son,  a  former  fellow-student  of  his  at  Cambridge. 
Hopkinson  was,  on  the  whole,  the  ablest  man  in  his 
class,  as  he  was  also  the  oldest.  Immediately  after 
leaving  college,  he  had  opened  an  office  at  Lowell,  and 
rapidly  gained  headway.  It  was  while  Phillips  was 
associated  with  Hopkinson,  that  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 
an  errand-boy  in  the  adjoining  office,  first  met  and 
became  acquainted  with  him. 

Returning  to  Boston,  Phillips  hired  desk-room  in  an 
office  on  Court  Street,  and  for  the  first  time  displayed 


44        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

his  sign.  "Weeks  and  months  crept  on ;  but  for  him  it 
was  the  old  story  of  "  a  good  calling,  but  no  clients." 
But  what  did  he  care  ?  To  him  the  law  was  not  the 
all-absorbing  study  of  his  life ;  and  even  now,  impa- 
tient of  its  details,  he  sought  recreation  in  the  exciting 
topics  of  the  times. 

When  Phillips  came  to  sign  the  roll  of  the  court  as 
a  member  of  the  bar  of  Suffolk,  already  had  he  ven- 
tured to  doubt  the  Constitution,  that  threw  even  a 
partial  protection  around  the  master  of  a  slave.  When 
he  wrote  his  name  to  the  oath  to  protect  the  Constitu- 
tion, he  writhed  in  shame  at  his  own  weakness.  It 
was  not  for  a  day,  nor  for  a  week,  that  his  manly  con- 
science waged  war  against  that  deed  of  honest  troth. 
For  him  it  was  a  plighted  vow  to  an  unloved.  He  had 
covenanted  with  circumstances. 

Says  one  of  his  friends  of  early  years,  —  again  Mr. 
Appleton,  —  "•  I  remember  a  year  or  so  after  we  left 
the  university,  I  met  Mr.  Phillips  on  the  street ;  and  I 
asked  him  if  he  were  getting  any  clients.  He  said  no, 
he  was  not.  I  told  him  the  case  was  much  the  same 
with  me ;  and  added  that  I  was  much  surprised  to  hear 
of  his  ill-success,  knowing  what  a  good  orator  he  was 
in  college. 

" '  Well,'  said  he,  '  I  will  wait  six  months  more  ;  and 
then,  if  clients  do  not  come,  I  will  not  wait  for  them 
longer,  but  will  throw  myself  heart  and  soul  into  some 
good  cause,  and  devote  my  life  to  it  if  necessary.' " 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EARLY  ANTI-SLAVEEY  MOVEMENT. 

Garrison  establishes  "  The  Liberator."  —  The  First  Number.  —  A 
Dingy  Office.  —  Mr.  Garrison's  Supporters.  —  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher. 
—  Jeremiah  Evarts.  —  Oliver  Johnson's  Testimony.  —  "  The  Liber- 
ator" creates  a  Stir  in  the  South.  —  The  Might  of  King  Cotton. — 
Garrison's  Appeal  to  his  Countrymen. — The  New-England  Anti- 
Slavery  Society.  —  Story  of  its  Organization.  —  Preachers  and 
Politics.  —  The  Rise  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  — 
Growth  of  the  Movement.  —  The  Reign  of  Terror  dawning.  —  The 
Charleston  Riot.  —  Faneuil  Hall  pays  a  Tribute  to  Slavery,  and 
the  New-England  Pulpit  Dumb! 

"When  the  pulpit  preached  slave-hunting,  and  the  law  bound  the  victim,  and 
society  said,  'Amen!  this  will  make  money,'  we  were  'fanatics,'  'enthusiasts,' 
« seditious,'  '  disorganizes, '  '  scorers  of  the  pulpit,'  '  traitors.'  Genius  of  the  Past! 
drop  not  from  thy  tablets  one  of  these  honorable  names.  We  claim  them  all  as  our 
surest  title  deeds  to  the  memory  and  gratitude  of  mankind.  We  indeed  thought  man 
more  than  constitutions,  humanity  and  justice  of  more  worth  than  law.  Seal  up  thy 
record!  If  Boston  is  proud  of  her  part,  let  her  rest  assured  we  are  not  ashamed  of 
ours." 

"  The  last  lesson  a  man  ever  learns  is,  that  liberty  of  thought  and  speech  is  the 
right  for  all  mankind."  — PHILLIPS. 

TN  August,  1830,  William  Lloyd  Garrison  issued  the 
-  prospectus  of  a  weekly  paper  to  be  published  in 
Washington,  and  called  "  The  Liberator."  The  pro- 
spectus created  no  interest,  and  the  proposition  was 
finally  "  palsied  by  public  indifference."  Having  thus 


46        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF    WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

made  known  his  project,  Mr.  Garrison  left  Washington, 
and,  after  looking  about  him  for  a  while,  located  in 
Boston.  His  object  in  establishing  "The  Liberator" 
was,  to  fight  slavery  to  the  bitter  end.  He  wisely  con- 
cluded, that  "  to  fight  slavery  at  the  South  while  the 
North  was  hostile  would  be  like  going  into  battle  in 
an  enemy's  country  with  no  base  for  re-enforceinents 
or  supplies." 

The  first  number  of  the  paper  appeared  in  January, 
1831 ;  and  an  exceedingly  small  folio  of  four  pages  it 
was,  too,  —  so  small  and  insignificant,  that  nobody,  in 
those  days,  ventured  to  think  that  it  would  ever  be 
able  to  exert  any  influence.  If  the  paper  was  unat- 
tractive in  its  external  appearance,  the  office  of  publica- 
tion, which  was  in  the  third  story  of  the  building  then 
known  as  the  Merchants'  Hall,  was  even  more  so.  The 
dingy  walls  ;  the  small  windows,  bespattered  with  print- 
er's ink;  the  press  standing  in  one  corner,  and  the 
composing-stands  opposite  ;  the  long  editorial  and  mail- 
ing table,  covered  with  newspapers;  the  bed  of  the 
editor  and  publisher  on  the  floor, — all  these  make  a 
picture  never  to  be  forgotten.  Harrison  Gray  Otis 
well  described  it  as  "  an  obscure  hole," 

"  Yet  there  the  freedom  of  a  race  began." 

In  establishing  "The  Liberator,"  Mr.  Garrison  an- 
nounced that  he  should  not  array  himself  as  the  politi- 
cal partisan  of  any  man,  and  that,' in  defending  the 


THE  EARLY  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.        47 

great  cause  of  human  rights,  he  wished  to  secure  "  the 
assistance  of  all  religions  and  of  all  parties." 

But  who  were  Mr.  Garrison's  supporters?  At  this 
time  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
orthodox  pulpits  in  Boston.  The  great  controversy 
which  had  been  going  on  between  orthodoxy  and  Uni- 
tarianism  was  drawing  nigh  to  its  culmination  in  the 
complete  divorcement  of  the  two  parties.  Dr.  Beecher 
was  a  born  belligerent:  Dr.  Channing,  on  the  Unita- 
rian side,  was  a  man  of  gentle  and  humane  spirit.  Mr. 
Garrison,  being  a  strict  orthodox  himself,  naturally 
looked  for  support  to  Dr.  Beecher  and  his  adherents. 
Garrison  approached  Beecher  on  the  subject. 

"  I  have  too  many  irons  in  the  fire  already,"  said  the 
doctor. 

"  Then,  you  had  better  let  all  your  irons  burn  than 
neglect  your  duty  to  the  slave,"  replied  Garrison 
solemnly. 

Dr.  Beecher,  like  a  good  many  other  people  of  his 
day,  while  not  an  advocate  of  slavery,  believed  in  colo- 
nization,—  in  other  words,  that  all  the  blacks  ought  to 
be  sent  over  to  Africa.  To  his  mind,  immediate  eman- 
cipation upon  American  soil  suggested  a  frightful  pic- 
ture, and  might  prove  a  curse.  "  Your  zeal,"  he  said 
to  Garrison,  "  is  commendable  ;  but  you  are  misguided. 
If  you  will  give  up  your  fanatical  notions,  and  be 
guided  by  us  (the  clergy),  we  will  make  you  the  Wil- 
berforce  of  America." 


48         LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

Disheartened  by  such  indifference  on  the  part  of 
Dr.  Beecher,  Mr.  Garrison  next  sought  Jeremiah 
Evarts,  secretary  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  who  was  an  earnest 
pleader  in  behalf  of  the  red  men  of  America.  But, 
no :  there  was  a  marked  difference  between  red  and 
black;  and,  with  the  black,  Mr.  Evarts  would  have 
nothing  to  do. 

To  the  honor  of  Boston,  however,  there  were  a  few 
friends  who  dared  to  stand  by  Mr.  Garrison.  "  Among 
those  who  came  to  confer  with  the  editor,"  writes  Mr. 
Oliver  Johnson,  who  was  himself  a  stanch  "friend," 
"  I  remember  Samuel  J.  May,  who  combined  the  cour- 
age of  Paul  with  the  lovingness  of  John,  and  who  was 
ever  afterwards  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  anti-slavery 
host;  Ellis  Gray  Loring,  then  a  rising  young  lawyer, 
with  a  clear  head  and  a  sound  conscience,  whose  death 
in  the  prime  cf  his  powers  left  a  vacancy  that  could 
not  be  filled ;  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  of  an  honored  Massa- 
chusetts family,  a  man  fitted  by  his  legal  attainments 
and  a  judicial  spirit  for  a  high  place  on  the  bench; 
David  Lee  Child,  the  bold  editor,  and  the  faithful 
champion  of  the  oppressed  of  every  nation  and  clime ; 
John  G.  Whittier,  then  almost  unknown  to  fame,  but 
whose  flashing  eye  and  intrepid  mien  foretold  the  songs 
of  freedom  with  which  he  afterward  thrilled  and 
stirred  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen ;  Joshua  Coffin, 
the  antiquarian,  Whittier's  old  schoolmaster,  and  the 


THE  EARLY  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.        49 

subject  of  one  of  his  characteristic  lays;  Arnold  Buf- 
fum,  the  Quaker  hatter,  lately  returned  from  England, 
where  he  had  caught  the  spirit  of  Clarkson,  Wilber- 
force,  O'Connell,  and  Buxton,  and  thus  prepared  him- 
self to  greet  the  rising  liberator  of  America;  Moses 
Thacher,  an  orthodox  clergyman,  one  of  the  first  of 
the  profession  to  welcome  the  call  for  immediate  eman- 
cipation; and  Amos  A.  Phelps,  then  pastor  of  the 
Congregational  church  in  Pine  Street." 

Ere  long  "  The  Liberator  "  began  to  make  itself  felt, 
not  alone  in  the  North,  but  also  in  the  South,  where 
every  effort  was  made  to  prevent  its  circulation.  The 
Vigilance  Association  of  South  Carolina  (Columbia), 
on  the  4th  of  October,  1831,  "offered  a  reward  of 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  the  apprehension  and  prose- 
cution to  conviction  of  any  white  person  who  might 
be  detected  in  distributing  or  circulating  4  The  Libera- 
tor,' or  any  other  publication  of  a  seditious  tendency." 
In  a  similar  manner  the  paper  was  proscribed  in  other 
sections  of  the  South. 

In  the  North,  a  moral  stupor  rested  upon  the  public 
and  the  press.  Most  people  regarded  Mr.  Garrison 
and  his  faithful  band  of  co-workers  as  so  many  fanatics, 
as  disturbers  of  the  peace,  and  as  breeders  of  evil. 
There  were  moments  when  it  seemed  as  if  the .  mis- 
guided public  opinion  of  the  hour  would  demand  the 
suppression  of  "  The  Liberator ; "  and  it  is  not  easy 
now  to  see  what  it  was,  except  the  interposition  of 


50        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Divine  Providence,  that  prevented  the  people  in  their 
madness  from  doing  all  that  King  Cotton  desired. 

At  an  hour  when  the  worst  seemed  to  be  culminat- 
ing, Mr.  Garrison  addressed  the  following  noble  words 
to  his  countrymen.  They  should  be  read  by  all  who 
now  wish  to  catch  something  of  the  spirit  that  impelled 
him  in  all  his  endeavors  :  — 


"  I  appeal  to  God,  whom  I  fear  and  serve,  and  to  its  patrons, 
in  proof  that  the  real  and  only  purpose  of  c  The  Liberator '  is  to 
prevent  rebellion,  by  the  application  of  those  preservative  princi- 
ples which  breathe  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men.  I  advance 
nothing  more.  I  stand  on  no  other  foundation  than  this:  'What- 
soever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them.'  I  urge  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  not  only 
because  the  slaves  possess  an  inalienable  right  to  liberty,  but 
because  the  system,  to  borrow  the  words  of  Mr.  Randolph,  is  *  a 
volcano  in  full  operation ; '  and  by  its  continuance  we  must  expect 
a  national  explosion.  .  .  .  The  present  generation  cannot  appre- 
ciate the  purity  of  my  motives  or  the  value  of  my  exertions.  I 
look  to  posterity  for  a  good  reputation.  The  unborn  offspring  of 
those  who  are  now  living  will  reverse  the  condemnatory  decision 
of  my  contemporaries.  Without  presuming  to  rank  myself  among 
them,  I  do  not  forget  that  those  reformers  who  were  formerly 
treated  as  the  '  offscouring  of  the  earth '  are  now  lauded  beyond 
measure.  I  do  not  forget  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  —  harm- 
less, undefined,  and  prudent  as  they  were  —  were  buffeted,  calum- 
niated, and  crucified ;  and  therefore  my  soul  is  steady  to  its  pursuit 
as  the  needle  to  the  pole.  If  we  would  not  see  our  land  deluged 
in  blood,  we  must  ins-tantly  burst  asunder  the  shackles  of  the 
slaves,  treat  them  as  rational  and  injured  beings,  give  them  lands 


TEE  EAELY  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.        51 

to  cultivate,  and  the  means  of  employment,  and  multiply  schools 
for  themselves  and  their  children.  We  shall  then  have  little  to 
fear.  The  wildest  beasts  may  be  subdued  and  rendered  gentle  by 
kind  treatment.  Make  the  slaves  free,  and  every  inducement  to 
revolt  is  taken  away.  ...  I  see  the  design  of  the  clamor  raised 
against '  The  Liberator.'  It  is  to  prevent  public  indignation  from 
resting  upon  the  system  of  slavery,  and  to  concentrate  it  upon  my 
own  head.  That  system  contains  the  materials  of  self-destruc- 
tion." 


The  beginning  of  the  year  1831  witnessed  the  birth 
of  "  The  Liberator,"  as  we  have  shown.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  another  step  was  taken,  which  was  des- 
tined to  good  results. 

On  the  13th  of  November  fifteen  persons  assembled 
in  the  office  of  Mr.  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  in  State  Street, 
to  consider  the  feasibility  of  establishing  an  anti-slavery 
society  in  New  England.  Of  this  little  company  Mr. 
Garrison  was  the  moving  spirit  and  the  chief  figure. 
All  present  appreciated  Mr.  Garrison's  motives,  but  not 
all  approved  his  plans.  Only  nine  of  the  number 
favored  immediate  emancipation. 

Another  meeting  was  held  at  the  same  place  on  the 
16th  of  December.  Ten  gentlemen  were  present;  and 
a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to  draft  a  consti- 
tution for  an  anti-slavery  society,  to  be  reported  Jan. 
1,  1832.  The  body  of  the  constitution  reported  by  the 
committee  was  adopted ;  but  an  adjourned  meeting  was 
reported  to  be  held  Jan.  6,  in  the  schoolroom  under 


52        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  African  Baptist  Church  in  Belknap   Street.     The 
fellowing  preamble  was  then  and  there  adopted :  — 

"  We,  the  undersigned,  hold  that  every  person  of  full  age  and 
sane  mind,  has  a  right  to  immediate  freedom  from  personal  bond- 
age of  whatsoever  kind,  unless  imposed  by  the  sentence  of  the 
law  for  the  commission  of  some  crime.  We  hold  that  man  can- 
not, consistently  with  reason,  religion,  and  the  eternal  and  immu- 
table principles  of  justice,  be  the  property  of  man.  We  hold  that 
whoever  retains  his  fellow-man  in  bondage  is  guilty  of  a  grievous 
wrong.  We  hold  that  mere  difference  of  complexion  is  no  reason 
why  any  man  should  be  deprived  of  any  of  his  natural  rights,  or 
subjected  to  any  political  disability.  While  we  advance  these 
opinions  as  the  principles  on  which  we  intend  to  act,  we  declare 
that  we  will  not  operate  on  the  existing  relations  of  society  by 
other  than  peaceful  and  lawful  means,  and  that  we  will  give  no 
countenance  to  violence  or  insurrection." 

Such  was  the  "fanaticism,"  the  "incendiarism,"  and 
the  "  infidelity  "  which  the  American  churches  scorned 
and  resisted. 

The  preamble  and  the  constitution  were  then  signed 
by  the  following  persons.  May  their  memories  ever 
be  kept  green !  — 

William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Robert  B.  Hall,  Arnold 
Buffum,  William  J.  Snelling,  John  E.  Fuller,  Moses 
Thacher,  Joshua  Coffin,  Stilman  B.  Newcomb,  Benja- 
min C.  Bacon,  Isaac  Knapp,  Henry  K.  Stockton,  and 
Oliver  Johnson,  —  all  but  the  last  named  dead. 

Messrs.  David  Lee  Child,  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  and 
Ellis  Gray  Loring  refused  their  signatures  at  the  time, 


THE  EAELT  ANTI-SLAVEEY  MOVEMENT.        53 

but  soon  afterward  joined  the  society.  All  of  these 
original  members  were  poor  men.  Not  one  of  them 
could  have  put  a  hundred  dollars  into  the  common 
treasury  without  bankrupting  himself.  But  such  was 
the  origin  of  "  The  New-England  Anti-slavery  Society," 
—  the  first  association  ever  organized  on  this  continent 
upon  the  principle  of  immediate  abolition. 

As  the  little  company  stepped  from  that  schoolhouse 
out  into  the  storm  and  darkness  of  the  night,  Mr.  Gar- 
rison impressively  remarked,  "We  have  met  to-night 
in  this  obscure  schoolhouse.  Our  numbers  are  few, 
and  our  influence  limited;  but,  mark  my  prediction, 
Faneuil  Hall  shall  ere  long  echo  with  the  principles  we 
have  set  forth."  We  shall  see  how  well  the  prophecy 
was  fulfilled. 

Of  the  work  of  the  New-England  Society  we  can  say 
but  little.  The  story  has  often  been  told,  and  with 
what  results  the  whole  world  now  knows.  It  was  ear- 
nest work,  that  told  mightily  in  the  end.  At  times  it 
seemed  as  if  nothing  could  be  accomplished,  as  if  the 
entire  purpose  must  be  given  up.  But  in  the  darkest 
hour  carne  cheering  tidings  from  England,  that  the 
whole  kingdom  was  shaken  by  the  eloquence  of  Wil- 
berforce,  Brougham,  O'Connell,  Thompson,  and  others. 
The  thundering  words  of  Lord  Brougham,  "It  is  the 
law  written  by  the  finger  of  God  on  the  heart  of  man  ; 
and  by  that  law,  unchangeable  and  eternal,  while  men 
despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor  blood,  they 


54        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

shall  reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty  fan- 
tasy, that  man  can  hold  property  in  man,"  stirred  the 
hearts  of  British  citizens  and  Christians.  But,  alas ! 
the  statesmen  and  divines  of  America  preferred  to 
weave  defences  and  apologies  for  slavery  out  of  the 
Bible  and  the  Constitution;  while  the  people,  who 
blindly  followed  and  looked  up  to  them,  seemed  to  care 
no  more  for  the  abolition  movement  than  they  did  for 
what  was  going  on  in  the  heart  of  Africa. 

In  December,  1833,  the  American  Anti-slavery  So- 
ciety was  organized,  with  its  headquarters  in  New- York 
City.  After  its  organization,  the  Society  immediately 
adopted  and  published  a  "  Declaration  of  Sentiments," 
in  which  they  declared,  — 

"  The  right  to  enjoy  liberty  is  inalienable.  To  invade  it  is  to 
usurp  the  prerogative  of  Jehovah.  Every  man  has  a  right  to  his 
own  body,  to  the  products  of  his  own  labor,  to  the  protection  of 
law,  and  to  the  common  advantages  of  -society.  It  is  piracy  to 
buy  or  steal  a  native  African,  and  subject  him  to  servitude. 
Surely  the  sin  is  as  great  to  enslave  an  American  as  an  African. 
Therefore  we  believe  and  affirm,  that  there  is  no  difference  in  prin- 
ciple between  the  African  slave-trade  and  American  slavery ;  that 
every  American  citizen  who  retains  a  human  being  in  involuntary 
bondage  as  his  property  is,  according  to  Scripture,  a  man-stealer ; 
that  the  slaves  ought  instantly  to  be  set  free,  and  brought  under 
the  protection  of  law ;  that  if  they  lived  from  the  time  of  Pharaoh 
down  to  the  present  period,  and  had  been  entailed  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  their  right  to  be  free  could  never  have  been 
alienated,  but  tfreir  claims  would  have  constantly  risen  in  solem- 


THE  EARLY  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.        55 

nity ;  that  all  those  laws  which  are  now  in  force,  admitting  the 
right  of  slavery,  are  therefore,  before  God,  utterly  null  and  void, 
being  an  audacious  usurpation  of  the  divine  prerogative,  a  daring 
infringement  on  the  law  of  nature,  a  base  overthrow  of  the  very 
foundations  of  the  social  compact,  a  complete  extinction  of  all  the 
relations,  endearments,  and  obligations  of  mankind,  and  a  pre- 
sumptuous transgression  of  all  the  holy  commandments ;  and  that 
therefore  they  ought  instantly  to  be  abrogated.  We  further 
believe  and  affirm,  that  all  persons  of  color  who  possess  the  qualifi- 
cations which  are  demanded  of  others,  ought  to  be  admitted  forth- 
with to  the  enjoyment  of  the  same  privileges,  and  the  exercise  of 
the  same  prerogatives  as  others ;  and  that  the  paths  of  preferment, 
of  wealth,  and  of  intelligence,  should  be  opened  as  widely  to  them 
as  to  persons  of  a  white  complexion." 

In  regard  to  the  measures  by  which  the  Society 
would  seek  the  accomplishment  of  its  purpose,  the 
declaration  asserts, — 

"  Our  principles  forbid  the  doing  of  evil  that  good  may  come, 
and  lead  us  to  reject,  and  to  entreat  the  oppressed  to  reject,  the  use 
of  all  carnal  weapons  for  deliverance  from  bondage;  lelying  solely 
upon  those  which  are  spiritual,  and  mighty  through  God  to  the 
pulling  down  of  strongholds." 

From  this  time  onward  the  cause  grew,  and  agitation 
became  more  and  more  intense.  Agents  of  the  socie- 
ties were  everywhere,  and  thousands  of  tracts  were 
sent  out  to  hasten  on  the  good  work.  Occasionally 
ministers  of  the  gospel  ventured  to  inveigh  against 
slavery,  and  whole  congregations  changed  attitudes. 
The  signs  of  the  times  all  pointed  to  a  victory  in  the 


56        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

end.  People  in  the  Southern  States,  however,  were 
furious;  and  their  opinion  of  the  new  movement  was 
voiced  in  the  following  paragraph  from  "  The  Rich- 
mond Whig: "  — 

"  Let  the  hell-hounds  of  the  North  beware !  Let  them  not  feel 
too  much  security  in  their  homes,  or  imagine  that  they  who  throw 
firebrands,  although  from,  as  they  think,  so  safe  a  distance,  will 
be  permitted  to  escape  with  impunity.*' 

"Let  your  emissaries,"  said  the  Rev.  Thomas  S. 
Witherspoon  of  Alabama,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of 
"The  Emancipator,"  "dare  to  cross  the  Potomac,  and 
I  cannot  promise  you  that  your  fate  will  be  less  than 
Hainan's.  Then,  beware  how  you  goad  an  insulted  but 
magnanimous  people  to  deeds  of  desperation  !  " 

The  reign  of  terror  was  dawning.  In  the  summer 
of  1835  great  quantities  of  printed  matter,  emanating 
from  the  anti-slavery  societies,  were  sent  through  the 
mails  to  citizens  at  the  South.  Naturally  a  tremendous 
excitement  followed.  In  Charleston,  S.C.,  the  post- 
office  was  broken  into  by  an  infuriated  populace ;  and 
all  the  anti-slavery  publications  were  taken  out,  and 
publicly  burned.  The  example  set  in  Charleston  was 
followed  in  other  cities;  and,  as  a  rule,  all  such  action 
was  commended  in  the  North. 

In  Boston,  the  abolitionists  asked  for  Faneuil  Hall 
wherein  to  explain  their  objects  and  to  defend  them- 
selves. The  request  was  rudely  denied.  But,  on  the 


THE  EAELT  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.        57 

15th  of  August,  the  doors  were  ppened  to  their  ene- 
mies. The  mayor  took  the  chair ;  and,  by  intemperate 
speeches,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  Richard  Fletcher,  and 
Peleg  Sprague  intensified  the  public  feeling  against 
the  abolitionists.  In  the  most  abject  manner,  Boston 
crouched  before  the  will  of  slavery. 

Shortly  afterward  Mr.  Garrison  was  hung  in  effigy, 
and  his  life  was  constantly  endangered.  In  the  midst 
of  all  these  proceedings,  which  threatened  the  over- 
throw of  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  the 
pulpit  of  New  England  was  either  dumb,  or  offered  an 
apology  to  the  rule  of  the  slave-power.  But,  even  thus, 
under  Providence  the  cause  of  the  bondmen  was 
marching  on. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  GARRISON  MOB,   AND  ITS  RESULTS. 

Where  was  Wendell  Phillips  ?  — The  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society 
hold  a  Meeting,  October,  1835.  —  Inflammatory  Handbills.  —  "  The 
Commercial  Gazette  "  excites  the  Mobocracy.  —  The  Ladies  assem- 
ble at  the  Hall.  —  The  Opening  Exercises.  —  The  Mob  gain  Posses- 
sion of  the  Hall. — Mayor  Lyman  counsels  Adjournment.  —  Mr. 
Garrison  seized  by  the  Rioters. — Dragged  through  Boston's  Streets. 
—  At  City  Hall.  —  Conveyed  to  Jail.  —  The  Outcome.  —  Phillips 
views  the  Spectacle.  —  Learns  a  Lesson.  —  Foresees  his  Future.  — 
His  Speech  on  the  Twentieth  Anniversary  of  the  Mob. 

"  Such  was  the  temper  of  those  times.  The  ignorant  were  not  aware,  and  the 
wise  were  too  corrupt  to  confess,  that  the  most  precious  of  human  rights,  free 
thought,  was  at  stake.  These  women  knew  it,  felt  the  momentous  character  of  the 
issue,  and  consented  to  stand  in  the  gap.  Those  were  trial-hours.  I  never  think  of 
them  without  my  shame  for  my  native  city  being  swallowed  up  in  gratitude  to  those 
who  stood  so  bravely  for  the  right." 

"  It  is  a  singular  result  of  our  institutions,  that  we  have  never  had  in  Boston  any 
but  well-dressed  mobs."  —  PHILLIPS. 

~YT7~HERE  was  the  young  Boston  aristocrat,  the  pet 
of  Boston  society,  the  rising  and  promising  law- 
yer, "Wendell  Phillips,  all  this  time  ?  How  did  he  view 
the  storm  that  was  pending  ?  What  were  his  emotions, 
and  where  were  his  sympathies?  We  shall  see. 

While  the  events  recorded  in  the  previous  chapter 
were  fast  crowding,  upon  one  another,  several  ladies  in 

58 


THE  GARRISON  MOB,   AND  ITS  RESULTS.        59 

Boston  and  its  vicinity  —  all  ladies  of  culture,  refine- 
ment, and  social  position  —  themselves  formed  an  anti- 
slavery  society,  and  entered  upon  the  good  work  with  a 
courage  and  zeal  truly  remarkable.  One  of  the  moving 
spirits  of  this  bond  of  union  was  Mrs.  Maria  Weston 
Chapman,  now  of  Weymouth,  Mass.,  whose  "  Memoirs 
of  Harriet  Martineau  "  has  found  many  admirers. 

It  was  announced  that  the  Boston  Female  Anti- 
slavery  Society  would  hold  a  meeting  on  the  21st  of 
October,  1835,  in  the  Anti-slavery  (Stacy)  Hall,  No.  46 
Washington  Street.  On  the  morning  of  that  day  in- 
flammatory handbills  were  circulated  throughout  the 
city,  and  threats  were  freely  uttered  by  the  enemies  of 
the  cause.  The  ladies,  indeed,  became  so  alarmed  at 
the  prospects,  that  they  petitioned  the  city  authorities 
for  protection.  No  notice  was  taken  of  the  petition. 

To  add  to  the  fury  of  the  evil-disposed,  a  false  report 
was  spread  abroad,  to  the  effect  that  George  Thompson, 
one  of  the  most  gifted  and  eloquent  men  of  his  age, 
who  had  come  from  England  to  America,  at  the  request 
of  Mr.  Garrison,  would  be  present  at  the  meeting,  and 
would  probably  deliver  an  address.  The  following 
placard  was  posted  in  all  parts  of  the  city:  — 

"THOMPSON  THE  ABOLITIONIST. 

"That  infamous  foreign  scoundrel,  Thompson,  will  hold  forth 
this  afternoon  at  46  Washington  Street.  The  present  is  a  fair 
opportunity  for  the  friends  of  the  Union  to  snake  Thompson  out  1 


60        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

It  will  be  a  contest  between  the  Abolitionists  and  the  friends  of 
the  Union.  A  purse  of  one  hundred  dollars  has  been  raised  by  a 
number  of  patriotic  citizens,  to  reward  the  individual  who  shall 
first  lay  violent  hands  on  Thompson,  so  that  he  may  be  brought  to 
the  Tar  Kettle  before  dark.  Friends  of  the  Union,  be  vigilant !  " 

One  of  the  morning  papers,  "  The  Commercial  Ga- 
zette," thus  alluded  to  the  meeting  appointed  for  the 
day:  — 

"  It  is  in  vain  to  hold  meetings  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  in  vain  that 
speeches  are  made  and  resolutions  are  adopted,  assuring  our  breth- 
ren of  the  South  that  we  cherish  rational  and  correct  notions  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  —  if  Thompson  and  Garrison,  and  their  vile 
associates  in  this  city,  are  permitted  to  hold  their  meetings  in 
the  broad  face  of  day,  and  to  continue  their  denunciations  of  the 
planters  of  the  South.  They  must  be  put  down  if  we  would  pre- 
serve our  consistency.  The  evil  is  -one  of  the  greatest  magnitude  ; 
and  the  opinion  prevails  very  generally,  that,  if  there  is  no  law  that 
will  reach  it,  it  must  be  reached  in  some  other  way." 

Such  language  served  its  purpose.  Before  the  hour 
appointed  for  the  opening  of  the  meeting,  the  streets  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  hall  were  filled  with  men,  with  their 
every  breath  freighted  with  vengeance.  Even  a  blind 
man  would  have  detected  trouble  ahead. 

Through  this  elegantly  dressed,  culture-boasting 
crowd,  taunted  by  the  insults  and  vulgarities  of  these 
chivalrous  friends  of  their  "  brethren  of  the  South,"  the 
ladies  passed  into  the  hall.  About  thirty  responded  to 
the  call  of  the  roll. 


THE  GARRISON  MOfi,   AND  ITS  RESULTS.        61 

Then  Miss  Mary  S.  Parker  read  a  selection  from  the 
Scripturesvand  in  fervent  tones  offered  up  a  prayer  to 
Almighty  God  "  for  his  blessing  upon  the  cause  of  the 
bondmen,  his  forgiveness  of  his  and  their  enemies,  and 
his  succor  and  protection  in  the  hour  of  peril." 

"  It  was,"  says  Mr.  Garrison,  who  was  present  at  the 
meeting  by  invitation,  "an  awful,  sublime,  and  soul- 
thrilling  scene,  —  enough,  one  would  suppose,  to  melt 
adamantine  hearts,  and  make  even  fiends  of  darkness 
stagger  and  retreat.  Indeed,  the  clear,  untremulous 
voice  of  the  Christian  heroine  in  prayer  occasionally 
awed  the  ruffians  into  silence,  and  was  heard  distinctly, 
even  in  the  midst  of  their  hisses,  yells,  and  curses." 

At  the  close  of  the  prayer,  Mr.  Garrison,  by  the 
advice  of  the  president,  in  company  with  Mr.  C.  C. 
Burleigh,  went  into  the  anti-slavery  office,  which  ad- 
joined and  was  separated  from  the  hall  by  a  board  par- 
tition. His  object  in  thus  departing  was  to  preserve 
the  contents  of  the  depository  from  being  destroyed  in 
case  the  mob  should  suddenly  become  furious. 

He  had  just  closed  the  door  behind  him,  and  the 
secretary  of  the  society  had  just  begun  to  read  the  an- 
nual report,  when  Mayor  Lyman  entered  the  room,  and 
commanded  the  ladies  to  disperse.  They  humbly  be- 
sought his  protection,  as  they  had  a  right  to  do :  he 
assured  them,  that,  as  they  were  disturbers  of  the  peace, 
he  was  powerless  to  afford  them  any  protection.  Thus 
baffled  by  "gentlemen  of  property  and  standing,"  and 


62        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

by  their  representative  the  mayor,  the  ladies  quietly 
adjourned  their  meeting. 

The  rioters  now  rushed  into  the  hall,  after  having 
bravely  demolished  the  anti-slavery  sign.  They  appro- 
priated the  Testaments  and  prayer-books,  and  then 
turned  their  attention  to  Mr.  Garrison.  By  advice  of 
the  mayor,  in  order  to  escape  the  mob,  he  crossed  the 
roof  in  the  rear  of  the  second  story  of  the  hall,  to  a 
carpenter-shop  in  the  second  story  of  a  building  in  Wil- 
son's Lane.  There  a  friend  tried  to  conceal  him,  but  it 
was  too  late.  The  rioters  had  discovered  his  hiding- 
place,  and,  amid  yells  which  were  heard  afar  off,  dragged 
him  to  a  window,  and  were  about  to  throw  him  out, 
when  the  conscience  of  one  of  them  caused  him  to  in- 
terfere. Then  they  drew  him  back,  and  coiled  a  rope 
around  his  body,  evidently  with  the  intention  of  drag- 
ging him  through  the  streets  of  Boston. 

Just  at  that  moment  a  ladder  was  raised  to  the  win- 
dow, and  Mr.  Garrison  was  permitted  to  descend.  From 
Wilson's  Lane  he  was  dragged,  bareheaded,  and  with  his 
garments  torn,  into  State  Street,  in  the  rear  of  City 
Hall  (now  "the  Old  State  House"),  over  ground  stained 
with  the  blood  of  the  first  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  lib- 
erty and  independence  in  the  memorable  massacre  of 
1770. 

Arriving  at  the  south  door  of  the  hall,  an  attempt  was 
made  by  the  mayor  to  protect  Mr.  Garrison ;  but  only 
until  several  respectable  citizens  lent  their  assistance, 


THE  GARRISON  MOB,   AND  ITS  RESULTS.        63 

did  the  attempt  prove  siiccessful.  Finally  rescued,  Mr, 
Garrison  was  taken  up  to  the  mayor's  room,  where  he 
was  provided  with  needful  clothing,  and  was  told,  that, 
to  preserve  his  life,  he  must  be  committed  to  jail  "  as 
a  disturber  of  the  peace."  A  closed  carriage  was  sum- 
moned, and  into  it  the  prisoner  was  put  without  much 
difficulty. 

"But  now,"  says  Mr.  Garrison,  "a  scene  occurred 
that  baffles  description.  As  the  ocean,  lashed  into  fury 
by  the  spirit  of  the  storm,  seeks  to  whelm  the  adven- 
turous bark  beneath  the  mountain  waves,  so  did  the 
mob,  enraged  by  a  series  of  disappointments,  rush  like 
a  whirlwind  upon  the  frail  vehicle  in  which  I  sat,  and 
endeavor  to  drag  me  out  of  it.  Escape  seemed  a  phys- 
ical impossibility.  They  clung  to  the  wheels,  dashed 
open  the  doors,  seized  hold  of  the  horses,  and  tried  to 
upset  the  carriage.  They  were,  however,  vigorously 
repulsed  by  the  police ;  a  constable  sprung  in  by  my 
side ;  the  doors  were  closed ;  and  the  driver,  lustily  using 
his  whip  upon  the  bodies  of  his  horses  and  the  heads 
of  the  rioters,  happily  made  an  opening  through  the 
crowd,  and  drove  at  a  tremendous  speed  for  Leverett 
Street.  But  many  of  the  rioters  followed,  even  with 
superior  swiftness,  and  repeatedly  attempted  to  arrest 
the  progress  of  the  horses.  To  reach  the  jail  by  a 
direct  course  was  found  impracticable ;  and  after  going 
by  a  circuitous  direction,  and  encountering  many  hair- 
breadth escapes,  we  drove  up  to  the  new  and  last  refuge 


64        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

of  liberty  and  life,  when  another  desperate  attempt  was 
made  by  the  mob  to  seize  me,  but  in  vain.  In  a  few 
moments  I  was  locked  up  in  a  cell,  safe  from  my  per- 
secutors, accompanied  by  two  delightful  associates, — 
a  good  conscience  and  a  cheerful  mind.  In  the  course 
of  the  evening  several  of  my  friends  came  to  my  grated 
window,  to  sympathize  and  confer  with  me,  with  whom 
I  held  a  strengthening  conversation  until  the  hour  of 
retirement,  when  I  threw  myself  upon  my  prison-bed, 
and  slept  tranquilly." 

In  the  morning  the  prisoner  wrote  with  a  pencil  the 
following  inscription  upon  the  walls  of  his  cell :  — 

"  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  put  into  this  cell  on  Wednesday 
afternoon,  Oct.  21,  1835,  to  save  him  from  the  violence  of  a  're- 
spectable' and  influential  mob,  who  sought  to  destroy  him  from 
preaching  the  abominable  and  dangerous  doctrine,  that  *  all  men 
are  created  equal,'  and  that  all  oppression  is  odious  in  the  sight  of 
God.  «  Hail,  Columbia  I '  Cheers  for  the  autocrat  of  Russia  and 
the  sultan  of  Turkey ! 

"Reader,  let  this  inscription  remain  till  the  last  slave  in  this 
despotic  land  be  loosed  from  his  fetters." 

In  the  course  of  the  forenoon  Mr.  Garrison  was  sub- 
jected to  the  mockery  of  an  examination  for  form's 
sake,  and  then  released  from  custody. 

While  seated  by  his  study-window  in  Court  Street, 
the  young  Boston  lawyer,  glancing  up  from  the  pages 
of  his  book,  and  out  into  the  thoroughfare,  caught  sight 
of  an  assembling  crowd  of  people.  Men  were  hurry- 


THE  GAEEISON  MOB,   AND  ITS  RESULTS.        65 

ing  towards  the  City  Hall  as  fast  as  their  feet  could 
carry  them ;  children  were  shouting  at  the  top  of  their 
voices;  and  occasionally  a  woman  would  turn  back, 
such  was  her  curiosity.  What  did  it  signify  ? 

His  own  curiosity  prompted  him  to  forsake  his  book, 
and  to  go  out  into  the  street.  With  hurried  strides  he 
wended  his  way  towards  the  City  Hall.  There  he  saw 
a  thousand  men,  clad  in  broadcloth  and  all  the  other 
paraphernalia  of  respectability,  dragging  a  man  with  a 
rope  around  his  waist. 

"  Who  is  that  man  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"William  Lloyd  Garrison,"  was  the  reply  of  a  by- 
stander. 

At  once  he  looked  upon  the  proceeding  with  indig- 
nation, and  discerned  a  violation  of  the  central  right 
of  the  Saxon's  idea  of  liberty. 

He  saw  the  mayor  entreating  the  crowd  to  maintain 
order  and  the  peace ;  but,  from  the  lips  of  that  cowered 
official,  he  heard  no  command  of  authority.  The  young 
lawyer  was  also  a  military  gentleman,  and  held  a  com- 
mission in  a  Suffolk  regiment.  The  colonel  of  that 
regiment  happened  to  be  standing  near  him. 

"  Colonel,"  said  the  younger  officer,  "  why  not  call 
out  the  guards?  Let  us  offer  our  services  to  the 
mayor." 

In  ten  words  the  wiser  officer  taught  his  young  friend 
more  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  than  nine- 
years'  study  had  taught  him. 


66        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  You  fool !  "  replied  the  latter,  pointing  to  the  crowd 
that  surged  and  pressed  before  him,  "  don't  you  see  that 
the  regiment  is  in  front  of  you  ?  " 

Then  for  the  first  time  it  flashed  upon  the  mind  of 
Wendell  Phillips  —  it  was  he  —  that  our  government, 
with  all  its  merits,  in  a  critical  hour  when  all  the  pas- 
sions of  men  fling  themselves  against  the  law,  has  no 
reserve  force,  and  that  there  is  no  tribunal  to  which 
one  can  appeal,  but  that  at  that  moment,  just  so  much 
of  law-abiding,  self-respecting,  intelligent  sense  as  there 
is  in  the  mob,  just  so  much  government  have  we  got, 
and  no  more. 

Phillips  had  never  thought  of  this  before.  He  had 
read  Greek  and  Roman  and  English  history ;  he  had  by 
heart  the  classic  eulogies  of  brave  old  men  and  mar- 
tyrs: he  had  even  dreamed  that  he  had  heard  the  same 
tone  from  the  cuckoo  lips  of  Edward  Everett,  and  now 
he  was  taught  his  error. 

Into  his  frenzied  brain,  thought  darted  with  the  speed 
of  an  arrow.  Intelligence  explained,  interpreted,  the 
scene  before  him.  True  to  the  old  proverb,  that  "  The 
blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church,"  this 
spectacle  of  shameless  outrage  committed  against  a  sin- 
gle, defenceless  man,  whose  only  crime  was,  that  he 
had  dared  to  speak  out  the  unvoiced  wrongs  of  the 
poorest  and  most  abject  beings  in  the  form  of  man, 
went  home  to  the  heart  of  Phillips,  and  stirred  his 
Puritanic  blood  to  the  very  finger-tips. 


THE  GAEEISON  MOB,  AND  ITS  RESULTS.        67 

Perhaps  he  could  not  help  it ;  for,  if  ever  a  man  was 
a  born  fighter,  Phillips  was  that  man  :  and  his  instincts 
led  him  to  take  up  with  the  weaker  side  from  an  innate 
conviction,  that,  in  such  a  world  as  this,  ninety-nine 
times  out  of  a  hundred,  the  right  is  on  the  side  of  the 
minority.  In  making  up  his  decision  as  to  what  he 
would  do,  or  where  he  would  stand,  the  question  of 
power,  or  wealth,  or  numbers,  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  Phillips. 

The  young  man  of  twenty-four,  with  a  great,  proud 
family,  with  a  social  position  higher  than  that  to  which 
most  young  men  attain  at  twenty-four,  with  ambition 
and  hope  and  truth  as  his  safeguards,  then  and  there 
vowed  that  he  would  cast  his  lot  with  the  anti-slavery 
people.  To  this  end  he  had  now  learned  his  first  les- 
son :  he  had  become  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of 
their  cause. 

One  word  more  before  we  close  this  chapter. 

On  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  Boston  mob, 
Mr.  Phillips  delivered  a  speech  in  Stacy  Hall,  Boston, 
in  which  he  reviewed  that  terrible  event  in  language 
profoundly  impressive.  Whoever  fails  to  read  it  will 
ignore  one  of  the  finest  and  most  eloquent  productions 
of  the  modern  school  of  oratory. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   DEBUT    OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

The  Year  1837.  —  Slavery  the  Dominant  Power  of  the  Country.  — 
Earnestness  of  the  Abolitionists.  —  The  Lovejoy  Tragedy. — Story 
of  the  Alton  Riots.  — The  Tidings  reach  Boston.  —  Faneuil  Hall 
refused  to  the  Indignant  Abolitionists. — Dr.  Channing  appeals  to 
the  Citizens  of  Boston.  —  The  Hall  opened  at  Last.  —  A  Packed 
Audience.  —  Resolutions.  —  Harangue  of  Attorney-Gen.  Austin. 
-Its  Effect.  — Reply  of  Wendell  Phillips.  —  Great  Uproar  and 
Excitement.  —  The  Result. 

"  Men  blame  us  for  the  bitterness  of  our  language  and  the  personality  of  our 
attacks.  It  results  from  our  position.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  can  never  be 
made  to  stay  and  argue  a  long  question.  They  must  be  made  to  feel  it,  through  the 
hides  of  their  idols." 

"  Give  me  any  thing  that  walks  erect,  and  can  read,  and  he  shall  count  one  in  the 
millions  of  the  Lord's  sacramental  host,  which  is  yet  to  come  up,  and  trample  all 
oppression  in  the  dust.  The  weeds  poured  forth  in  nature's  lavish  luxuriance,  give 
them  but  time,  and  their  tiny  roots  shall  rend  asunder  the  foundations  of  palaces, 
and  crumble  the  Pyramids  to  the  earth."  —  PHILLIPS. 

FT  was  the  year  1837, — a  year  which  marks  the  dawn- 
f*"  ing  of  one  of  the  most  momentous  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  American  people.  Martin  Van  Buren 
had  been  elected  to  the  presidency ;  and  his  constitu- 
ents, the  Democratic  party,  had  also  secured  a  decisive 
majority  in  the  Twenty-fifth  Congress.  No  Congress 
that  preceded  was  more  subservient  to  the  demands 
of  the  slave-power.  It  voted  not  only  to  silence  the 

68 


THE  DEBUT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  69 

voice  of  the  people,  but  its  own  voice  as  well.  It 
struck  down  the  sacred  right  of  the  people  to  petition 
for  the  redress  of  their  grievances,  by  clamor,  menace, 
and  resolution,  destroyed  the  freedom  of  debate,  and 
hushed  the  voice  of  the  representatives  of  the  nation. 

But  although  the  administration  thus  begun  was  un- 
hesitatingly subservient  to  the  demands  of  the  slave- 
power,  and  the  slave-power  itself  was  far-reaching,  the 
uprising  against  slavery  was  not  so  slight  as  not  to  give 
cause  for  alarm.  Two  features  of  the  early  stages  of 
this  uprising  were  peculiarly  striking  and  suggestive. 
There  was  the  manifest  failure  of  those  early  pioneers 
"  to  comprehend  the  magnitude  and  inveteracy  of  the 
evil  to  be  removed,  or  the  tremendous  grasp  in  which 
it  held  the  nation  in  its  every  department  of  individual 
and  associated  life."  There  was,  too,  an  enthusiastic  but 
unwarranted  confidence  in  a  speedy  triumph.  Evi- 
dences abound.  They  are  seen  in  the  proceedings  of 
anti-slavery  conventions  and  anniversaries,  in  the  anti- 
slavery  reports,  speeches,  and  journals  of  those  days. 
Even  Mr.  Garrison,  whose  abilities  and  opportunities 
of  judging  were  certainly  not  small,  shared  largely  in 
these  illusions  of  hope,  and  in  this  evident  under-esti- 
mate  of  the  greatness  and  severity  of  the  contest  on 
which  they  had  entered.  Though  much  be  conceded 
to  the  charm  of  novelty,  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  and 
the  pardonable  confidence  of  the  neophyte,  unhack- 
neyed as  yet,  and  without  the  lessons  gained  in  the 


70        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

stern  school  of  experience,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for 
these  over-sanguine  expressions.  Especially  does  this 
appear  in  view  of  the  determined  opposition  they  were 
obliged  to  encounter  almost  always  and  everywhere,  in 
their  attempts  to  reach  the  popular  ear  and  heart.  Not 
only  were  they  excluded,  as  they  complainingly  as- 
serted, from  churches  and  halls,  but  they  were  driven 
by  rioters  from  their  own  quarters,  and  hardly  permitted 
to  walk  the  streets  without  the  hootings,  and  sometimes 
the  more  personal  and  physical  violence,  of  the  mob. 
Nor  was  this  the  mere  temporary  ebullition  of  the  hour. 
It  continued  until  no  inconsiderable  number  of  those 
early  and  sanguine  men  and  women  felt  constrained  to 
come  out  of  both  churches  and  parties,  as  hopelessly  in 
bondage  to  this  haughty  and  dominating  power  of  the 
land.  Doubtless  it  was  well  that  such  was,  the  fact. 
Had  they  fully  comprehended  the  desperate  nature  of 
the  struggle,  fathomed  the  depth  of  their  country's 
degradation  and  peril,  gauged  the  full  measure  of  its 
apostasy  and  the  slow  progress  of  truth;  had  they  known 
the  extent  of  the  great  and  terrible  wilderness  on  which 
they  had  entered,  and  the  length  of  their  journeyings 
to  the  promised  land,  —  the  hearts  of  many  would  have 
sunk  within  them,  and  they  might  have  relinquished 
the  attempt  before  it  was  well  begun.1 

And  now  came  a  tragedy.     On  the  7th  of  November, 

1  See  Wilson,  History  of  the  Slave  Power;   Frothinghain,  Life  of 
Theodore  Parker;  Johnson,  Garrison  and  his  Times. 


THE  DfiBUT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  71 

1837,  Rev.  Elijah  Lovejoy  was  murdered  by  a  mob  at 
Alton,  111. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  Maine,  and 
a  graduate  of  Waterville  College  in  the  class  of  1826. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  had  journeyed  to  the  West, 
and  had  become  a  teacher  in  one  of  the  schools  of  St. 
Louis.  Two  years  later,  fortune  made  him  the  editor 
of  a  political  journal  of  the  National  Republican  party, 
and  an  active  supporter  of  Henry  Clay.  Subsequently 
he  entered  the  theological  seminary  at  Princeton,  N.J., 
was  licensed  to  preach,  and,  in  the  autumn  of  1832,  re- 
turned to  Missouri,  and  established  "The  St.  Louis 
Observer,"  a  weekly  religious  journal. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  was  not  an  abolitionist  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  word,  but  was  a  friend  of  free  discussion ;  and 
some  of  his  remarks  on  the  subject  of  slavery  gave  great 
offence  to  the  people  of  St.  Louis.  "  I  have  sworn  eter- 
nal hostility  to  slavery,  and  by  the  blessing  of  God  I 
will  never  go  back :  "  such  were  his  words. 

In  the  spring  of  1836  a  negro,  who  had  killed  an  offi- 
cer to  avoid  arrest,  was  taken  out  of  jail  by  an  excited 
mob,  was  carried  out  of  the  city,  chained  to  a  tree,  and 
burned  to  death.  When,  in  due  time,  the  matter  came 
before  the  grand  jury,  Judge  Lawless  (an  appropriate 
name  surely)  expressed  in  his  charge  the  sentiment, 
that  if  a  mob  be  hurried  on  to  its  deeds  of  violence  and 
blood  by  some  "  mysterious,  metaphysical,  and  almost 
electric  frenzy,"  participators  in  it  are  absolved  from 


72        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

guilt,  and  are  not  proper  subjects  of  punishment.  "  If 
such  be  the  fact,"  he  said,  "  act  not  at  all  in  the  matter : 
the  case  then  transcends  your  jurisdiction  ;  it  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  human  law." 

Mr.  Lovejoy  ventured  to  comment  on  this  infamous 
charge,  and  scandalous  attempt  to  blind  the  eyes  of 
justice.  As  a  result,  his  office  was  invaded  by  a  mob, 
and  was  ruined.  He  removed  the  paper  to  Alton, 
111. ;  but  his  press,  on  being  landed  there,  was  broken 
into  fragments.  The  citizens  reimbursed  him  for  his 
loss. 

Before  many  weeks  had  transpired,  the  pro-slavery 
party  in  Alton  found  cause  for  complaint  in  the  col- 
umns of  "  The  Observer;"  and  in  the  month  of  August, 
1837,  the  office  and  press  were  destroyed  by  a  mob. 
Another  press  was  purchased ;  but,  before  it  could  be 
set  up,  it  was  broken  into  pieces,  and  thrown  into  the 
Mississippi  River. 

In  the  midst  of  these  events,  a  convention  to  form  a 
State  anti-slavery  society,  which  had  been  called  to 
meet  at  Upper  Alton,  was  broken  up  by  a  pro-slavery 
convention.  Two  days  afterwards  the  convention  met, 
and  organized  the  contemplated  society.  Among  the 
resolutions  adopted  was  one  declaring  that  "  the  cause 
of  human  rights,  the  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press, 
imperatively  demand  that  the  press  of  4  The  Alton  Ob- 
server' be  re-established  at  Alton  with  its  present  ed- 
itor," and  pledging  the  society,  with  the  aid  of  Alton 


THE  DEBUT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  73 

friends,  and  "by  the  help  of  Almighty  God,"  to  take 
measures  for  its  re-establishment. 

Naturally,  the  city  was  in  a  state  of  intense  ex- 
citement. Violence  was  anticipated.  The  arrival  of 
another  press  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  demonstration 
which  ended  only  in  arson  and  bloodshed. 

The  new  press  arrived  on  the  morning  of  Nov.  7,  and 
the  news  of  its  arrival  was  spread  abroad  by  the  inciters 
to  mob  violence  by  the  blowing  of  horns.  The  mayor 
superintended  its  transfer  to  the  warehouse,  and  aided 
in  storing  it  away.  During  the  day,  although  great 
excitement  prevailed,  no  wanton  act  was  committed. 
About  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  most  of  the  defenders 
retired,  leaving  a  dozen  persons  only  to  face  the  perils 
of  midnight. 

Presently  thirty  or  forty  persons,  issuing  from  the 
grog-shops,  approached  the  door,  knocked,  and  demanded 
the  press.  One  of  the  proprietors  of  the  warehouse 
replied  that  it  would  not  be  given  up,  and,  further,  that 
they  had  been  authorized  by  the  mayor  to  defend  it, 
and  defend  it  they  should,  even  at  the  risk  of  their 
lives.  With  a  pistol  in  hand,  the  leader  of  the  gang 
announced  that  they  were  resolved  to  have  the  press 
at  any  cost ;  and,  at  a  signal,  stones  were  hurled  against 
the  building,  and  then  shots.  The  firing  was  returned; 
and  one  of  the  rioters  fell,  mortally  wounded. 

"  Burn  them  out ! "  shouted  the  leader.  Ladders 
were  obtained,  and  preparations  made  to  set  the  build- 


74        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

ing  on  fire.  The  mayor  came  to  the  defence,  also  a 
justice  of  the  peace ;  and  these  counselled  a  surrender 
of  the  press,  on  condition  that  its  defenders  should  not 
be  injured.  But  a  surrender  was  not  to  be  thought  of 
by  those  who  believed  in  a  lawful  right  to  protect 
property.  The  refusal  only  added  fuel  to  the  popular 
wrath ;  and  then  the  cry  went  up,  "  Fire  the  building, 
and  shoot  every  d — d  abolitionist  as  he  leaves ! " 

The  lighted  torch  was  put  to  the  roof.  Five  of  the 
defenders  sallied  forth  from  the  building,  fired  upon 
the  mob,  and  returned.  Mr.  Lovejoy  and  two  others 
then  stepped  out,  and  were  fired  upon  by  rioters  con- 
cealed behind  a  pile  of  lumber.  Mr.  Lovejoy  received 
five  balls,  three  of  them  in  his  breast.  Returning  to  the 
counting-room,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  am  shot !  I  am  shot !  " 
and  almost  instantly  expired. 

After  his  death,  his  friends  offered  to  surrender ;  but 
the  offer  was  refused.  As  they  left  the  burning  build- 
ing, they  were  fired  upon ;  but  no  one  was  killed.  The 
mob  then  rushed  in,  seized  the  press,  broke  it,  and 
threw  the  fragments  into  the  river.  The  next  day  the 
body  of  the  martyr  was  buried  by  his  friends,  while 
his  enemies  stood  near,  and  exulted  over  his  death. 

Thus  bravely  fell  one  of  the  most  heroic  of  that 
number  of  noble  and  earnest  men  who  early  consecrated 
themselves  to  the  purpose  of  maintaining,  at  fearful 
odds,  that  essential  palladium  of  a  republic,  —  freedom 
of  thought,  freedom  of  speech,  and  freedom  of  the 


THE  DfiBUT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  75 

press.  From  that  very  day  Alton  "went  under  a  cloud 
from  which  she  did  not  emerge  for  years.  Her  pros- 
perity was  smitten  with  a  moral  blight.  Her  very  name 
became  repulsive.  Emigrants  of  intelligence  and  char- 
acter could  not  be  attracted  to  a  place  whose  citizens 
allowed  a  man  to  be  ruthlessly  murdered  for  daring  to 
speak  against  slavery.  The  grave  of  the  martyr,  which 
was  made  upon  a  bluff  overlooking  the  Mississippi,  was 
unmarked  for  many  years;  but  an  appropriate  monu- 
ment now  indicates  the  spot.  For  centuries  to  come, 
that  monument  will  attract  more  visitors  than  any 
other  object  that  Alton  will  have  to  show."  To  the 
friends  of  liberty,  it  will  be  a  shrine,  reminding  them 
how  much  they  owe  to  one  noble  man,  who  preferred 
to  die  rather  than  surrender  the  dearest  right  of  an 
American  citizen. 

Nearly  a  half-century  has  elapsed  since  the  enact- 
ment of  that  terrible  tragedy  at  Alton,  and  what 
changes  have  taken  place !.  Then  the  valiant  minister 
of  the  gospel,  hunted  like  a  partridge,  and  appealing 
in  vain  for  protection  against  an  infuriated  mob,  found 
the  officers  of  the  law  actuated  and  awed  by  the  demon 
of  slavery  rather  than  inspired  by  the  genius  of  free- 
dom. Now  that  mob  is  dispersed :  many  of  the  leaders 
came  to  an  ignominious  death ;  the  very  system  of  ini- 
quity that  urged  them  onwards  and  headlong  into  ruin 
is  dead.  When  the  printing-press  of  Lovejoy  was 
thrown  in  fragments  into  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi, 


76        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

it  was  an  act  of  consecration  to  freedom  of  that  majestic 
stream,  even  as  the  ashes  of  the  saintly  Huss  thrown 
into  the  Rhine  consecrated  that  storied  river  to  the 
cause  and  dominion  of  Protestantism. 

The  tidings  of  the  death  of  Lovejoy  were  borne  like 
a  whirlwind  over  the  broad  continent.  People  who 
advocated  slavery  either  applauded,  or  at  best  excused, 
the  bloody  act.  Those  who  believed  in  the  freedom 
of  speech  and  of  the  press  received  the  news  with  pro- 
found sorrow  and  regret.  Public  opinion  was  thor- 
oughly aroused,  —  never  more  so  up  to  this  period. 

The  intelligence  reached  Boston ;  and  Dr.  William 
Ellery  Channing  and  a  hundred  of  his  fellow-citizens 
applied  for  permission  to  call  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  expression  to  their  horror  at 
the  murder  of  Lovejoy.  The  application  was  not  imme- 
diately granted,  on  the  ground  that  such  a  meeting 
might  be  interpreted  as  "  the  public  voice  of  the  city." 
Undaunted  by  this  decision  of  the  board  of  aldermen, 
Dr.  Channing  at  once  addressed  an  appeal  to  the  citi- 
zens of  Boston. 

"Has  it  come  to  this?  [he  asked].  Has  Boston  fallen  so  low? 
May  not  its  citizens  be  trusted  to  come  together  to  express  the 
great  principles  of  liberty  for  which  their  fathers  died  ?  Are  our 
fellow-citizens  to  be  murdered  in  the  act  of  defending  their  prop- 
erty, and  of  assuming  the  right  of  free  discussion  ?  And  is  it  unsafe 
in  this  metropolis  to  express  abhorrence  of  the  deed  ?  If  such  be 
our  degradation,  we  ought  to  know  the  awful  truth ;  and  those 


THE  DEBUT  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  77 

among  us  who  retain  a  portion  of  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors  should 
set  themselves  to  work  to  recover  their  degenerate  posterity." 

Dr.  Charming  was  not  an  unknown  man ;  and  an 
appeal  coming  from  one  who  occupied  his  position,  and 
wielded  his  influence,  could  not  but  make  a  deep  im- 
pression. A  public  meeting  was  called  at  the  old 
supreme-court  room  to  "take  into  consideration  the 
reasons  assigned  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen  for  with- 
holding Faneuil  Hall,  and  to  act  in  the  premises  as 
may  be  deemed  expedient."  The  meeting  was  held,  a 
new  application  was  drawn  up  and  presented,  —  happily 
with  success. 

On  the  8th  of  December  Faneuil  Hall  was  filled  to 
overflowing.  Jonathan  Phillips,  an  eminent  citizen,  was 
called  to  the  chair,  and  opened  the  proceedings  with  a 
few  brief  remarks.  He  was  followed  by  Dr.  Channing, 
whose  address  was  most  eloquent  and  impressive.  Then 
a  series  of  resolutions  from  his  pen  was  read  by  Mr. 
Benjamin  F.  Hallett,  and  seconded  and  supported  by 
Mr.  George  S.  Hillard. 

Thus  far  every  thing  had  been  decorous,  dignified, 
and  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  occasion.  Never  did 
the  light  of  day  stream  in  upon  an  audience  seemingly 
more  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  human  rights  and 
human  freedom. 

Suddenly  uprose  in  the  gallery  James  T.  Austin,  the 
attorney-general  of  the  Commonwealth,  a  prominent 
lawyer,  an  adroit  speaker,  and  a  member  of  Dr.  Chan- 


78        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

ning's  congregation.  His  very  manner  foreshadowed 
menace,  and  his  matter  was  full  of  insult.  With  un- 
blushing insolence  he  declared  that  Lovejoy  had  "  died 
as  the  fool  dieth,"  and  compared  his  murderers  with  the 
men  who  destroyed  the  tea  in  Boston  Harbor.  Alluding 
to  the  bondmen,  he  said,  — 

"  We  have  a  menagerie  here,  with  lions,  tigers,  a  hyena  and  an 
elephant,  a  jackass  or  two,  and  monkeys  in  plenty.  Suppose,  now, 
some  new  cosmopolite,  some  man  of  philanthropic  feelings,  not  only 
toward  man,  but  animals,  who  believes  that  all  are  entitled  to  free- 
dom as  an  inalienable  right,  should  engage  in  the  humane  task  of 
giving  freedom  to  these  wild  beasts  of  the  forest,  some  of  whom  are 
nobler  than  their  keepers ;  or,  having  discovered  some  new  mode  of 
reaching  their  understanding,  should  try  to  induce  them  to  break 
their  cages,  and  be  free.  The  people  of  Missouri  had  as  much  rea- 
son to  be  afraid  of  their  slaves  as  we  should  have  to  be  afraid  of  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  menagerie.  They  had  the  same  dread  of  Lovejoy 
that  we  should  have  of  the  supposed  instigator,  if  we  really  believed 
the  bars  would  be  broken,  and  the  caravan  let  loose  to  prowl  about 
our  streets." 

The  speaker  probably  thought  and  hoped  that  his 
scurrilous  utterances  would  create  confusion  in  the 
meeting,  and  defeat  its  avowed  objects.  The  riotous 
element  of  the  assemblage,  which  constituted  about  one- 
third,  had  indeed  vociferously  applauded,  but  no  more. 

Standing  among  the  auditors  was  a  young  man,  un- 
known to  fame,  his  brow  still  wet  with  the  dews  of 
youth,  with  the  best  blood  of  Boston  coursing  in  his 
veins,  the  best  culture  of  Harvard  in  his  brain,  and 


THE  DEBUT  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  79 

with  a  tongue  already  set  aflame  by  the  righteous  indig- 
nation that  filled  his  breast.  He  was  a  mighty  listener, 
and  he  had  come  into  that  meeting  —  only  to  listen. 

The  attorney-general  of  the  Commonwealth  had 
scarcely  retired,  when  that  young  man  mounted  the  ros- 
trum. Loud  rose  the  hostile  protestations  of  the  par- 
tisans of  the  attorney-general ;  but  with  unflinching 
attitude,  calm  manner,  and  serenity  of  voice,  the  speaker 
on  the  platform  held  his  place.  It  was  a  trying,  a  bitter, 
ordeal;  but  it  was  also  an  opportunity  which  comes 
but  once  in  the  lifetime  of  a  man  of  genius  and  of 
mettle. 

"Sir,  when  I  heard  the  gentleman  lay  down  principles  which 
place  the  murderers  of  Alton  side  by  side  with  Otis  and  Hancock, 
with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I  thought  those  pictured  lips  [pointing  to 
the  portraits  in  the  hall]  would  have  broken  into  voice,  to  rebuke 
the  recreant  American,  —  the  slanderer  of  the  dead." 

A  storm  of  applause  and  of  counter-applause  burst 
from  the  audience.  For  a  few  moments  the  voice  of 
the  speaker  was  hushed.  At  length  he  continued,  — 

"  The  gentleman  said  that  he  should  sink  into  insignificance  if 
he  dared  to  gainsay  the  principles  of  these  resolutions.  Sir,  for  the 
sentiments  he  has  uttered,  on  soil  consecrated  by  the  prayers  of 
Puritans  and  the  blood  of  patriots,  the  earth  should  have  yawned, 
and  swallowed  him  up." 

At  this  point  the  uproar  became  furious :  the  speak- 
er's voice  was  unheard.  "  Take  that  back ! "  "  Take  back 
the  '  recreant ! '  "  were  the  cries  on  one  side !  "  Go  on  I " 


80        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  Go  on  ! "  was  the  cry  on  the  other.  For  a  moment  it 
seemed  as  if  violence  would  follow ;  and  two  friends  of 
the  speaker,  George  Bond,  Esq.,  and  Hon.  William 
Sturgis,  came  to  his  side  at  the  front  of  the  platform. 
They  were  met  with  the  demands  of  "  Phillips  or  no- 
body ! "  "  Make  him  take  back  4  recreant : ' "  "  he  sha'n't 
go  on  till  he  takes  it  back !  " 

Mr.  Sturgis  raised  his  hand  to  the  audience,  and  the 
din  was  hushed.  "I  did  not  come  here  to  take  any 
part  in  this  discussion,"  he  said,  "nor  do  I  intend  to: 
but  I  do  entreat  you,  fellow-citizens,  by  every  thing  you 
hold  sacred;  I  conjure  you  by  every  association  con- 
nected with  this  hall,  consecrated  by  our  fathers  to 
freedom  of  discussion,  —  that  you  listen  to  every  man 
who  addresses  you  in  a  decorous  manner." 

Unmoved  from  his  position,  unabashed  by  the  terrors 
of  the  hour,  the  young  man  whose  voice  had  enkindled 
such  mighty  wrath,  resumed  his  speaking :  — 

"Fellow-citizens  [said  he],  I  cannot  take  back  my  words. 
Surely  the  attorney-general,  so  long  and  well  known  here,  needs 
not  the  aid  of  your  hisses  against  one  so  young  as  I  am,  —  my  voice 
never  before  heard  within  these  walls'! '' 

He  closed  his  speech  with  the  declaration  that  — 

"  When  liberty  was  in  danger,  Faneuil  Hall  had  the  right,  and 
it  was  her  duty,  to  strike  the  key-note  for  the  Union,  that  the  pas- 
sage of  the  resolutions,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  led  by  the  attor- 
ney-general, will  show  more  decidedly  the  deep  indignation  with 
which  Boston  regards  this  outrage." 


THE  DEBUT  OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS.  81 

By  this  brave  and  brilliant  utterance,  which  tran- 
scended the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  the  few  friends 
who  intimately  knew  his  force  of  eloquence,  and  which 
caused  the  old  "Cradle  of  Liberty"  to  echo  as  never 
before  to  exalting  and  ennobling  sentiments,  the  ora- 
tor WENDELL  PHILLIPS  was  born. 

Such  were  the  events  of  one  short  month.  The  mar- 
tyrdom of  Lovejoy  caused  Phillips  to  consecrate  cul- 
ture, learning,  and  zeal  to  the  advocacy  of  human 
rights,  and  to  the  denunciation  of  the  wrongs  of  the 
oppressed.  It  placed  him  also  among  the  foremost  and 
most  popular  American  orators.  To  his  fervid  and  in- 
dignant eloquence,  even  Attorney-Gen.  Austin  stands 
indebted;  for  it  alone  will  preserve  his  name  to  the  latest 
posterity  as  that  of  one  of  the  most  brutal  assailants  of 
the  dignity  of  man. 

The  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  was  dispersed.  The 
multitude  went  home  impressed,  but  not,  as  a  majority, 
convinced.  The  virus  of  slavery  had  taken  deep  root ; 
and  it  was  hard  not  to  believe,  that  as  Hubbard  Wins- 
low,  a  Boston  Congregational  clergyman,  expressed  it 
a  month  previous  in  his  Thanksgiving  discourse,  "  the 
unchristian  principles  and  measures  "  of  the  Abolition- 
ists did  not  tend  to  fill  the  land  "with  violence  and 
blood."  A  few  persons  foresaw,  however,  in  the  events 
of  the  hour,  a  new  revelation  of  the  magnitude  and 
serious  character  of  the  contest  on  which  they  had 
entered. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PHILLIPS   AN  ABOLITIONIST.  —  MARRIAGE. 

Phillips' s  Aspirations.  —  Speech  at  New  Bedford.  —  The  Lyceum- 
Lecture  System.  — Phillips  delivers  his  First  Lecture.  —  "  The  Lost 
Arts."  —  Joins  the  New-England  Anti-Slavery  Society.  — Status  of 
the  Colored  People.  —  The  Chapmans.  —  Ann  Terry  Greene.  — 
Phillips  falls  in  Love.  —  Marriage.  —  His  Domestic  Life.  —  The 
Faithful  Wife.  —  Recollections  of  Mr.  Buckingham.  —  Phillips' s 
First  Anti-Slavery  Lecture.  —  Recollections  of  Edwin  Thompson. 

"  The  mightiest  intellects  of  the  race,  from  Plato  down  to  the  present  time;  some 
of  the  rarest  minds  of  Germany,  France,  and  England,— have  successively  yielded 
their  assent  to  the  fact  that  woman  is,  not  perhaps  identically,  but  equally,  endowed 
with  man  in  all  intellectual  capabilities.  It  is  generally  the  second-rate  men  who 
doubt,  —  doubt,  perhaps,  because  they  fear  a  fair  field :  — 

'He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 

Or  his  deserts  are  small, 
That  dares  not  put  it  to  the  touch 
To  gain  or  lose  it  all.'  " 

*'  When  Infinite  Wisdom  established  the  rules  of  right  and  honesty,  he  saw  to  it 
that  justice  should  be  always  the  highest  expediency."  — PHILLIPS, 

~TN  the  crowded  thoroughfares  of  Boston,  Wendell 
Phillips  found  the  mission  of  his  manhood.  The 
Garrison  mob  gave  a  new  bent  to  his  thoughts.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-four  he  allowed  himself  to  drift 
into  the  great  struggle  which  was  impending  over  the 
republic.  From  that  hour  he  became  interested  in  the 
cause  of  human  rights. 

82 


PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST. — MAEEIAGE,        83 

Previous  to  this  time  he  had  played  the  rdle  of  a 
struggling  lawyer,  —  not,  indeed,  struggling  for  bread 
and  butter,  but  for  clients  and  recognition.  Fresh  from 
college,  and  well  knowing  of  what  he  was  made,  and  of 
what  he  was  capable,  he  had  looked  forward  to  a  public 
life,  and  cherished  an  ambition  to  hold  a  public  office. 
But  now  he  had  chosen  a  different  field :  he  had  gone 
on  a  different  line. 

After  his  graduation  Mr.  Phillips  was  invited  to 
speak  at  New  Bedford,  Mass.  Of  this  event,  Mr. 
Charles  T.  Congdon  furnishes  the  following  interesting 
recollections :  — 

"Massachusetts  [he  states],  in  earlier  times,  was  hardly  ever  in 
accord  with  the  General  Government;  but  its  opposition  to  the 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren  administrations  was  particularly  bitter, 
and  persistently  unbroken.  It  was  intensified  by  traditions  of  old 
quarrels  with  the  Washington  powers,  which,  though  long  allayed, 
had  still  left  a  root  of  bitterness.  There  was  a  trace  of  this  in  the 
first  address  which  I  heard  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  deliver, —  a 
Fourth-of-July  oration  given  in  our  town  (New  Bedford)  just  after 
he  left  the  university. 

"  When  he  stood  up  in  the  pulpit,  I  thought  him  the  handsomest 
man  I  had  ever  seen:  when  he  began  to  speak,  his  elocution 
seemed  the  most  beautiful  to  which  I  had  ever  listened ;  and  I  was 
sure  that  the  orations  of  Cicero,  which  I  had  just  begun  to  thumb, 
were  given  to  the  S.P.Q.R.  with  much  smaller  effect.  Even  then 
the  great  orator  of  the  Abolitionists  was  an  admirable  speaker; 
nor  did  he,  though  scarcely  past  his  majority,  lack  the  grace  and 
force  of  language  with  which  the  whole  country  has  since  become 
familiar. 


84        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"There  was,  besides,  a  fresh  and  youthful  enthusiasm,  which 
could  not  last  forever.  He  had  then  all  the  pride  of  State  feeling, 
which  he  had  probably  inherited  from  his  Federal  ancestors ;  and 
I  remember  one  expression  which  fell  from  his  lips,  which,  in  the 
light  of  his  subsequent  career,  is  a  little  curious.  He  was  speak- 
ing of  the  political  history  of  the  State,  and  of  its  frequent  isolation 
in  politics,  and  electrified  us  all  by  exclaiming,  «  The  Star  of  Mas- 
sachusetts has  shone  the  brighter  for  shining  alone ! '  I  suspect 
that  even  then  Mr.  Phillips's  Federal  relations  were  in  rather  an 
uncertain  condition."1 

In  1830  the  lyceum-lecture  system,  which  has  played 
so  important  and  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  political  and 
intellectual  education  of  the  masses,  was  started  by 
Horace  Mann,  Josiah  Holbrook,  Rev.  Dr.  Allen,  Hon. 
Amasa  Walker,  George  B.  Emerson,  and  others.  Mr. 
Phillips  was  among  the  first  to  take  part  in  the  move- 
ment, and  as  early  as  1836  he  delivered  his  first  lecture. 
He  selected  his  subjects  from  the  realm  of  natural  sci- 
ence, of  which,  perhaps,  he  was  more  fond  than  of  the 
law ;  and,  every  winter  succeeding,  his  name  appears  as 
one  of  the  lecturers  in  the  stated  courses  of  the  day. 
His  lecture  on  "  The  Lost  Arts,"  which  was  probably 
the  most  popular  and  most  charming  lecture  for  the 
people  ever  delivered  in  this  country,  began  its  career 
in  1838. 

After  he  had  joined  the  anti-slavery  society,  in  1837, 


1  Reminiscences  of  a  Journalist,  by  Charles  T.  Congdon,  Boston, 
1880. 


PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST. — MARRIAGE.        85 

he  gradually  abandoned  science,  and  spoke  more  fre- 
quently on  the  slave-question  and  on  temperance.  It 
was  his  custom,  whenever  his  auditors  would  permit 
him  to  speak  on  these  themes,  to  make  no  charge  for  so 
doing.  But,  if  his  hearers  preferred  to  listen  to  a  lec- 
ture on  science  instead,  he  invariably  demanded  his 
usual  fee.  As  a  rule,  they  were  more  in  favor  of  a  lec- 
ture on  science  than  on  slavery  or  temperance. 

During  these  years  the  colored  people  were  refused 
admittance  to  the  lyceum  lectures, — a  fact  which  greatly 
displeased  the  young  aspirant  for  platform-honors.  At 
first  he  advocated  a  special  course  for  the  colored  peo- 
ple ;  and,  not  content  with  this,  he  became  one  of  a 
small  group  —  which  included  also  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son, George  William  Curtis,  and  Charles  Sumner  — 
that  strenuously  refused  to  lecture  before  any  audience 
where  colored  people  were  not  admitted.  This  had 
the  effect  to  completely  break  down  the  old  rule  of 
exclusiveness. 

At  this  period,  there  lived  in  what  was  then  Chauncy 
Place,  now  Chauncy  Street,  nearly  opposite  where  the 
First  Church  stood,  the  family  of  Henry  Chapman,  a 
Boston  merchant,  and  a  merchant,  too,  who  was  one  of 
the  first  to  sacrifice  his  business  interests  by  espousing 
the  cause  of  the  slave.  He  was  owner  of  many  ships, 
but  none  of  them  with  his  permission  ever  carried  slaves 
as  freight.  Both  Mr.  Chapman  and  his  wife  were  greatly 
interested  in  the  cause  of  anti-slavery. 


86        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Into  this  family  there  came,  one  day,  Anne  Terry 
Greene,  the  daughter  of  Benjamin  Greene,  a  brother  of 
Sarah  (Greene)  Chapman.  Her  father  and  mother  had 
died  while  she  was  yet  of  tender  years.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chapman,  she  early  became 
interested  in  anti-slavery ;  and,  as  she  had  ample  prop- 
erty of  her  own,  she  became  a  liberal  contributor  to  the 
cause. 

It  was  while  young  Phillips  was  still  a  member  of  the 
Harvard  Law  School  that  he  first  became  acquainted 
with  Miss  Greene.  It  was  a  sort  of  chance  meeting, 
the  outcome  of  which  is  best  told  in  the  heroine's  own 
words :  — 

"  It  was  in  old  stage-coach  days,"  she  once  explained. 
"  I,  with  other  girls,  was  booked  for  Greenfield,  Mass. 
Wendell  Phillips  and  Charles  Sumner  agreed  to  go  also. 
Sumner  broke  his  engagement :  Mr.  Phillips  went.  I 
talked  abolition  to  him  all  the  way  up,  —  all  the  time 
there.  He  listened,  came  again,  and  it  sealed  his  fate." 

In  October,  1837,  Mr.  Phillips  was  married  to  Miss 
Greene,  but  not  until  she  had  succeeded  in  fully  con- 
verting him  to  the  cause  of  anti-slavery. 

It  is  because  that  much  has  been  said  of  the  eloquence 
of  Wendell  Phillips,  and  of  his  remarkable  power  and 
grace  in  public  speech,  that  just  here  it  seems  fitting  to 
utter  a  few  words  of  praise  of  those  other  features  of  his 
life  which  so  largely  depended  upon  his  domestic  rela- 
tions. The  home-life  of  a  public  man  does  not  belong 


PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST.  —  MAERIAGE.        87 

to  the  world.  Whoever  invades  its  sacredness  violates 
the  code  of  honor.  But,  to  understand  what  manner  of 
man  was  Wendell  Phillips,  one  must  go  a  few  steps  be- 
hind the  scenes ;  and  to  think  of  the  greatest  of  Ameri- 
can orators,  and  of  the  part  which  he  enacted  during  his 
eventful  career,  without  also  thinking  of  that  devoted 
wife,  who  was  a  part  of  him,  and  perhaps  the  greater 
part,  would  be  doing  an  injustice  to  both. 

"  My  wife  made  me  an  abolitionist,"  said  Mr.  Phillips 
over  and  over  again  to  those  who  had  his  confidence. 
For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  her  name  should  always 
be  spoken  with  his. 

At  the  time  of  her  marriage  she  was  an  invalid,  com- 
pelled to  keep  her  room,  and  much  of  her  time  her  bed, 
by  reason  of  her  weakness  and  pain.  Rarely  to  be  seen 
by  any  except  a  few  intimates,  she  never  lost  courage, 
nor  wavered  in  her  advocacy  of  the  great  truths  of  hu- 
manity. It  was  her  suggestions,  the  promptings  of 
wifely  devotedness  and  womanly  intuition,  that  inspired 
Wendell  Phillips's  loftiest  and  bravest  words  in  the 
darkest  days  of  the  martyr-age  of  the  great  anti-slavery 
contest.  It  was  his  affection  for  her  that  gave  added 
tenderness  and  pathos  to  his  pleas  for  the  suffering 
slave. 

To  her  he  was  loving  and  true  indeed;  the  nurse  by 
day,  and  the  sleepless  watcher  by  night ;  never  flagging 
in  his  care,  never  failing  in  his  delicate  and  reverent  re- 
gard to  her  every  want  and  wish,  never  going  far  from 


88        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

home  without  her  approval,  always  making  her  quiet 
chamber  the  centre  of  his  world. 

That  centre  was  full  of  light  and  spiritual  life ;  for  the 
wife,  though  feeble  in  body,  was  wise  in  counsel,  strong 
in  soul,  and  inspired  her  husband  by  noble  purposes  and 
divine  ideals.  Faithful  and  unfailing  in  his  domestic 
life,  his  care  and  thought  for  her,  the  chosen  among  all 
others,  never  ceased.  She  repaid  him  by  lighting  his 
pathway,  and  keeping  his  soul  up  to  the  fearless  courage 
and  uncompromising  course  which  she  saw  were  neces- 
sary in 

"  The  conflict  with  the  crime 

And  folly  of  an  evil  time." 

The  world  will  never  forget  Wendell  Phillips.  Even 
Boston,  that  spurned  and  misunderstood  him  forty  years 
ago,  has  paid  fit  reverence  to  him  over  his  open  grave. 
His  work  on  earth  is  done,  and  his  true  manhood  has 
conquered  all  hearts.  For  him,  the  laurel  and  the  vic- 
tory. For  her,  the  invalid  wife,  the  very  centre  of  his 
life,  the  inspiration  of  his  power,  —  what  ?  She  never 
doubted  his  sincerity,  she  never  questioned  the  nobility 
of  his  spirit,  she  never  assailed  the  sweet  purity  of  his 
life. 

Husband  and  wife,  may  their  names  be  always  linked 
in  our  remembrance!  May  we  never  forget  how  much 
they  owed  to  each  other,  how  much  they  helped  each 
other !  As  often  as  we  recall  the  burning  utterances  of 
the  young  orator  at  the  Lovejoy  meeting,  the  manly 


PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST. — MARRIAGE.        89 

attitude  which  he  assumed  towards  the  fugitive  slave, 
and,  above  all,  that  marvellous  courage  which  he  put 
on  when  he 

"  Dared  to  be  traitor  to  Union  when  Union  was  traitor  to  right," 

when  the  Philistines  were  howling  around  him,  and 
were  threatening  to  demolish  the  roof  that  sheltered  his 
head,  and  not  only  his  head,  but  that  also  of  his  wife, 
may  we,  in  justice  to  him,  think  of  her  who  shared  Jiis 
knightly  courage,  his  unselfish  consecration  to  duty,  his 
unspeakable  sacrifice  and  suffering  for  truth,  justice, 
and  freedom ! 

From  the  manuscript  of  Dr.  Edgar  Buckingham,  I 
cull  the  following  touching  passages :  — 

"I  pass  from  conversations  in  the  privacy  of  his  study  and 
library,  to  say  a  word  or  two  of  what  Mr.  Phillips  was  in  his  still 
more  private  affections.  I  never  saw  his  wife ;  though  in  his  con- 
versations and  his  correspondence  with  me  he  often  spoke  of  her, 
and  it  was  my  privilege  to  exchange  many  communications  with 
her.  He  was  a  lover  all  his  life,  —  not  with  the  instinctive  love  of 
youth  alone,  but  with  the  secured  attachment,  the  quiet  confidence 
of  the  heart,  the  beautiful  affectionateness,  which,  in  the  later 
years  of  the  pure  and  good,  is  a  far  superior  development  of 
character,  and  a  far  richer  enjoyment,  than  the  effervescence  of 
youthful  days. 

"  She  was,  as  he  wrote  me  once,  his  counsel,  his  guide,  his  in- 
spiration. Within  a  year  or  two,  in  correspondence  with  him,  I 
ventured  to  call  her  his  Egeria ;  and  I  think  they  were  both  greatly 
pleased  with  her  being  so  called.  For  Egeria  Was  a  goddess  of 
ancient  Rome,  whom  no  one  ever  saw,  whom  Numa,  the  second 


90        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

king  of  Rome,  after  the  wars,  the  tumults,  in  which  that  city  was 
long  disturbed,  were  mostly  at  an  end,  professed  to  visit  in  a  secret 
grotto,  to  receive  instructions  from,  while  he  was  laboring  to  estab- 
lish civil  institutions,  and  to  refine  the  manners  of  the  people,  and 
educate  them  in  the  principles  and  the  rights  of  religion.  So  the 
wife  of  Mr.  Phillips  was  his  Egeria,  his  councillor,  his  guide,  and 
his  inspiration. 

"You  understand,  too,  that  Mr.  Phillips  has  been  for  many 
years  laboring  for  the  rights  of  woman,  in  relation  to  government, 
to  social-position,  to  opportunities  of  education  and  of  employment 
thaf  should  give  her  a  livelihood.  And  how  much  loftier  a  posi- 
tion woman  has  attained  within  the  last  fifty  years ;  how  much 
she  has  been  allowed  education,  development,  usefulness ;  how 
much  less  she  is  the  slave  of  dress  and  fashion  and  pleasure 
and  flattery ;  how  much  men  are  compelled  to  endure  her  rivalry 
and  to  find  themselves  under  the  necessity  of  greater  exertion  and 
nobler  aims  if  they  would  not  decline  in  honor,  and  lose  the  supe- 
riority of  position  which  they  have  long  claimed  under  the  title  of 
'  Lords  of  Creation ! '  If  life  was  made  beautiful  to  Mr.  Phillips 
by  the  companionship  of  an  affectionate,  cultivated,  sympathizing 
wife,  he  labored  to  diffuse  through  the  world  the  influences  he 
enjoyed  ;  and  many  thousands  of  sons  will  live  purer,  nobler  lives 
on  account  of  the  happiness  diffused  from  these  two  good,  pure,  and 
united  hearts.  Every  maiden  who  thinks  of  marriage,  and  who  is 
to  be  married,  will  have  a  better  husband ;  many  a  mother  will 
feel  that  her  boys  are  more  secure  against  intemperance  and  every 
other  form  of  corruption ;  many  thousands  of  husbands  will  find 
they  have  better  companions,  wives  more  truly  helpmates,  guides 
and  means  of  inspiration." 

From  the  time  when  Mr.  Phillips  first  began  to  speak 
on  the  slave-question,  his  services  were  constantly  in 


PHILLIPS  AN  ABOLITIONIST. — MAEEIAGE.        91 

demand.  The  reputation  for  eloquence  which  he  estab- 
lished for  himself  a*t  the  Lovejoy  meeting  followed  him 
wherever  he  went,  and  undoubtedly  carried  conviction 
to  many  persons  disinclined  to  favor  the  agitation  of  the 
abolition  problem. 

The  first  anti-slavery  lecture  which  he  ever  gave  was 
at  Lynn,  Mass.,  in  the  old  Christian  meeting-house  on 
Silsbee  Street.  The  house  stands  nearly  opposite  where 
Mr.  Williams  now  preaches.  Phillips  went  there  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Anti-slavery  Society, 
several  of  whose  members  had  listened  to  his  famous 
reply  to  Attorney-General  Austin's  harangue  in  Faneuil 
Hall. 

In  1838  Phillips  was  again  invited  to  deliver  the 
Fourth-of-July  oration  in  Lynn,  at  the  First  Methodist 
Church.  The  following  reminiscences  of  this  event 
serve  to  show  something  of  the  earnestness  with  which 
Mr.  Phillips  entered  into  the  cause.  They  are  from  the 
pen  of  Mr.  Edwin  Thompson,  himself  an  anti-slavery 
advocate :  — 

"  We  not  only  engaged  Mr.  Phillips  for  the  oration  [he  says], 
but  we  also  secured  the  services  of  Miss  Susan  Paul,  a  celebrated 
teacher  of  a  colored  school  in  Boston.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Thomas  Paul,  a  popular  Baptist  preacher  in  Boston,  who,  though 
,  of  the  colored  race,  was  a  man  of  high  standing.  His  name  was  a 
household  word  in  Lynn.  At  that  time  children  of  the  colored  race 
could  not  attend  the  public  schools  of  Boston,  sit  with  white  people 
in  churches,  or  ride  in  any  public  conveyance  with  them.  Miss 


92        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Paul  came  to  Lynn  with  forty  of  her  scholars  in  carriages  which 
they  hired  for  the  occasion.  She  and  her  pupils  sang  such  songs 
as  were  appropriate  in  those  early  anti-slavery  days.  Of  course,  it 
produced  a  great  sensation  in  Lynn,  especially  among  the  young 
people,  who  had  never  seen  so  many  colored  children  before. 

"  As  Miss  Paul  and  her  pupils  were  obliged  to  start  early  from 
Boston,  they  had  taken  but  a  slight  breakfast;  and  they  partook  of 
a  lunch  at  my  father's  house,  which  was  always  open  for  the  friends 
of  every  reformatory  movement.  At  the  celebration,  it  so  happened 
that  I  was  called  upon  to  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 
which,  I  suppose,  was  the  reason  that  Mr.  Phillips  said  he  thought 
I  ought  to  speak  publicly  in  behalf  of  the  slave.  I  told  him  I  did 
not  think  I  was  qualified  to  speak  as  an  advocate  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  Although  I  had  been  engaged  in  the  cause  for  five  years 
before  Mr.  Phillips  came  into  the  movement,  I  had  never  spoken  to 
any  great  extent  on  the  subject. 

"  Soon  after  the  conversation  with  Mr.  Phillips,  I  received  an 
invitation  from  the  Essex  County  Anti-slavery  Society  to  visit  all 
the  towns,  and  organize  societies,  get  up  anti-slavery  libraries,  and 
lecture  on  the  subject.  I  worked  under  the  direction  of  the  martyr, 
Rev.  Charles  T.  Torrey,  who  was  the  corresponding-secretary,  who 
was  preaching  in  Salem  as  pastor  of  the  Howard-street  Church, 
where  the  celebrated  George  B.  Cheever,  author  of  the  famous 
'  Deacon  Giles'  Distillery/  once  preached.  This  appointment,  which 
I  suppose  came  at  the  instigation  of  Mr.  Phillips,  changed  my  whole 
course  of  life,  and  brought  me  into  a  somewhat  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  some  of  the  grandest  people  I  have  ever  known." 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  WORLD'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  CONVENTION. 

Begins  its  Sessions  June  12,  1840.  —  The  Rights  of  Women  discussed 
in  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. — David  Lee  Child's  Reso- 
lutions. —  Prominent  Delegates.  —  Freemasons'  Hall,  •  London.  — 
Debate  on  the  Admission  of  Women.  —  Speech  of  Mr.  Phillips. 
—  The  Women  rejected.  —  Adverse  Criticism,  and  Wisdom  of  Mr. 
Phillips. 

"Theories  are  but  thin  and  unsubstantial  air  against  the  solid  fact  of  woman 
mingling  with  honor  and  profit  in  the  various  professions  and  industrial  pursuits 
of  life." 

"  It  is,  after  all,  of  little  use  to  argue  these  social  questions.  These  prejudices 
never  were  reasoned  up;  and,  my  word  for  it,  they  will  never  be  reasoned  down. 
The  freedom  of  the  press,  the  freedom  of  labor,  the  freedom  of  the  race  in  its 
lowest  classes,  was  never  argued  to  success.  The  moment  you  can  get  woman  to  go 
out  into  the  highway  of  life,  and  show  by  active  valor  what  God  has  created  her  for, 
that  moment  this  question  is  settled  forever."  —  PHILLIPS. 

the  12th  of  June,  1840,  the  World's  Anti-slavery 
Convention  began  its  session  in  London,  England. 
This  fact  brings  us  to  a  consideration  of  Mr.  Phillips's 
early  advocacy  of  the  rights  of  women  as  co-equal 
with  those  of  men. 

When  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society  was  formed, 
in  1833,  some  of  the  women  present  at  the  meeting 
made  speeches;  and  the  convention  passed  a  vote  of 
thanks  to  them  for  their  interest  and  zeal  in  the  cause. 


94        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

In  1835  the  society  wished  to  delegate  Mrs.  Lydia 
Maria  Child  to  visit  England  in  the  interests  .of  the 
anti-slavery  cause,  and  two  years  later  endeavored  to 
secure  her  services  as  travelling  lecture-agent.  In  the 
same  year  the  Misses  Grimkd  were  similarly  commis- 
sioned. 

At  the  sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  society,  in  May, 
1839,  an  attempt  was  made  for  the  first  time  to  exclude 
women  from  active  membership.  A  motion  was  made 
by  a  clergyman  (his  name  is  forgotten),  that  none  but 
men  should  have  their  names  placed  upon  the  rolls; 
but  this  motion  was  rejected  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  same  year  a  woman  was  put  on  a  com- 
mittee to  "  examine  and  report "  on  the  publication  of 
the  annual  report.  It  caused  a  great  commotion  among 
the  members ;  but  there  was  no  open  revolt  until  1840, 
when  for  the  first  time  a  woman  was  elected  on  the 
business  committee  of  the  society.  In  consequence  of 
this  action,  a  minority  of  the  membership  withdrew, 
and  formed  another  anti-slavery  society.  This  division 
afterwards  extended  through  many  of  the  State  and 
local  anti-slavery  organizations. 

The  World's  Anti-slavery  Convention  was  first  pro- 
jected by  the  English  abolitionists.  When  the  Ameri- 
can Anti-slavery  Society  was  invited  to  send  delegates, 
it  responded  by  adopting  the  following  resolutions, 
offered  by  David  Lee  Child,  at  its  annual  meeting  held 
in  New  York,  May  12,  1840 :  — 


THE   WORLD'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  CONVENTION.      95 

"Resolved,  That  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society  regards 
with  heartfelt  interest  the  design  of  the  World's  Convention  about 
to  assemble  in  London,  and  anticipates  from  its  labors  a  powerful 
and  blessed  influence  upon  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the 
victims  of  slavery  and  prejudice  wherever  they  are  found. 

"  Resolved,  That  our  beloved  friends,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
Nathaniel  Peabody  Rogers,  Charles  Lenox  Remond,  and  Lucretia 
Mott,  be,  and  they  hereby  are,  appointed  delegates,  to  represent 
this  society  in  the  said  convention;  and  we  heartily  commend  them 
to  the  confidence  and  love  of  the  universal  abolition  fraternity. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  anti-slavery  enterprise  is  the  cause  of  uni- 
versal humanity,  and,  as  such,  legitimately  calls  together  the 
World's  Convention  ;  and  that  this  society  trusts  that  that  conven- 
tion will  fully  and  practically  recognize,  in  its  organization  and 
movements,  the  equal  brotherhood  of  the  entire  human  family, 
without  distinction  of  color,  sex,  or  clime." 

The  delegates  from  other  anti-slavery  societies  in  the 
United  States  were  Wendell  Phillips,  Anne  Greene 
Phillips,  George  Bradburn,  Henry  B.  Stanton,  Eliza- 
beth Cady  Stanton,  Professor  William  Adams,  Rev. 
Henry  Colver,  Rev.  Nathaniel  Greene,  Rev.  Eben 
Galusha,  James  Mott,  James  G.  Birney,  C.  Edwards 
Lester,  Sarah  Pugh,  Mary  Grew,  Elizabeth  T.  Neale 
(now  Mrs.  Sidney  Howard  Gay),  Emily  Winslow  Tay- 
lor, Col.  J.  P.  Miller,  Isaac  Winslow-,  Abby  Kimber, 
Abby  Southwick,  Rev.  Henry  Grew,  and  perhaps  oth- 
ers. Several  American  clergymen  (the  clergy  always 
favored  reform)  who  landed  in  England  a  few  days 
before  the  majority  of  the  delegation,  busily  engaged 
themselves  in  fanning  the  English  prejudices  into  active 


96        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

hostility  against  the  admission  of  the  women  to  the 
convention. 

The  12th  of  June  was  a  fair  and  bright  morning, 
and  at  an  early  hour  the  anti-slavery  delegates  from 
the  different  countries  wended  their  way  through  the 
crooked  streets  of  London  to  Freemasons'  Hall.  "  En- 
tering the  vestibule,"  says  a  historian  of  the  conven- 
tion, "little  groups  might  be  seen  gathered  here  and 
there,  earnestly  discussing  the  best  disposition  to  make 
of  those  women  delegates  from  America.  The  excite- 
ment and  vehemence  of  protest  and  denunciation  could 
not  have  been  greater  if  the  news  had  come  that  the 
French  were  about  to  invade  England.  In  vain  these 
obdurate  women  had  been  conjured  to  withhold  their 
credentials,  and  not  thrust  a  question  that  must  pro- 
duce such  discord  on  the  convention.  Lucretia  Mott, 
in  her  calm,  firm  manner,  insisted  that  the  delegates 
had  no  discretionary  power  in  the  proposed  action,  and 
the  responsibility  of  accepting  or  rejecting  them  must 
rest  on  the  convention." 

The  convention  was  called  to  order  at  eleven  o'clock, 
the  venerable  Thomas  Clarkson  being  in  the  chair.  At 
the  earliest  moment  Mr.  Phillips  arose,  and  made  the 
following  motion :  — 

"That  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  correct 
list  of  the  members  of  this  convention,  with  instructions  to  include 
in  such  list  all  persons  bearing  credentials  from  any  anti-slavery 
society." 


THE   WORLD'S  ANTI-SLAVEBY  CONVENTION.       97 

This  motion  at  once  opened  the  debate  on  the  admis- 
sion of  women  as  delegates. 

As  soon  as  an  opportunity  offered,  Mr.  Phillips  pro- 
ceeded to  argue  his  motion.  He  said,  — 

"  When  the  call  reached  America,  we  found  that  it  was  an  invi- 
tation to  the  friends  of  the  slave  of  every  nation  and  of  every 
clime.  Massachusetts  has  for  several  years  acted  on  the  principle 
of  admitting  women  to  an  equal  seat  with  men  in  the  deliberate 
bodies  of  anti-slavery  societies.  When  the  Massachusetts  Anti- 
slavery  Society  received  that  paper,  it  interpreted  it,  as  it  was  its 
duty,  in  its  broadest  and  most  liberal  sense.  If  there  be  any 
other  paper,  emanating  from  the  committee,  limiting  to  one  sex 
the  qualification  of  membership,  there  is  no  proof;  and,  as  an 
individual,  I  have  no  knowledge  that  such  a  paper  ever  reached 
Massachusetts.  We  stand  here  in  consequence  of  your  invitation ; 
and  knowing  our  custom,  as  it  must  be  presumed  you  did,  we  had 
a  right  to  interpret  'friends  of  the  slave'  to  include  women  as 
well  as  men.  In  such  circumstances  we  do  not  think  it  just  or 
equitable  to  that  State,  nor  to  America  in  general,  that  after  the 
trouble,  the  sacrifice,  the  self-devotion,  of  a  part  of  those  who 
leave  their  families  and  kindred  and  occupations  in  their  own 
land,  to  come  three  thousand  miles  to  attend  this  world's  conven- 
tion, they  should  be  refused  a  place  in  its  deliberations." 

One  of  the  committee  who  issued  the  call  stated  that 
a  second  invitation  had  been  issued,  in  which  "the 
description  of  those  who  are  to  form  the  convention  is 
set  forth  as  consisting  of  '  gentlemen.' " 

Dr.  Bowring  said,  — 

"  I  look  upon  this  delegation  from  America  as  one  of  the  most 
interesting,  the  most  encouraging,  and  the  most  delightful,  symp- 


98        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

toms  of  the  times.     I  cannot  believe  that  we  shall  refuse  to  wel- 
come gratefully  the  co-operation  which  is  offered  us." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  a  most  touching  appeal  to  the 
ladies  to  withdraw  their  credentials,  the  Rev.  J.  Bur- 
net  (another  clergyman)  said  that  it  would  be  better 
that  the  convention  should  be  dissolved  at  once  than 
that  "  this  motion  should  be  adopted." 

Another  clergyman,  the  Rev.  Henry  Grew  of  Phila- 
delphia, said, — 

"  The  reception  of  women  as  a  part  of  this  convention  would, 
in  the  view  of  many,  be  not  only  a  violation  of  the  customs  of 
England,  but  of  the  ordinances  of  Almighty  God,  who  has  a  right 
to  appoint  our  services  to  his  sovereign  will." 

Mr.  Phillips  was  urged  on  all  sides  to  withdraw  his 
motion.  He  again  arose  in  support  of  it.  He  said,  — 

"It  has  been  hinted  very  respectfully  by  two  or  three  speakers, 
that  the  delegates  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts  should  with- 
draw their  credentials,  or  the  motion  before  the  meeting.  The 
one  appears  to  me  to  be  equivalent  to  the  other.  Tf  this  motion 
be  withdrawn,  we  must  have  another.  I  would  merely  ask  whether 
any  man  can  suppose  that  the  delegates  from  Massachusetts  or 
Pennsylvania  can  take  upon  their  shoulders  the  responsibility  of 
withdrawing  that  list  of  delegates  from  your  table,  which  their 
constituents  told  them  to  place  there,  and  whom  they  sanctioned 
as  their  fit  representatives,  because  this  convention  tells  us  that  it 
is  not  ready  to  meet  the  ridicule  of  the  morning  papers,  and  to 
stand  up  against  the  customs  of  England.  In  America  we  listen 
to  no  such  arguments.  If  we  had  done  so,  we  had  never  been 


THE  WORLD' 's  ANTI-SLAVERY  CONVENTION.     99 

here  as  abolitionists.  It  is  the  custom  there,  not  to  admit  colored 
men  into  respectable  society;  and  we  have  been  told  again  and 
again,  that  we  are  outraging  the  decencies  of  humanity  when  we 
permit  colored  men  to  sit  by  our  side.  When  we  have  submitted 
to  brickbats  and  the  tar-tub  and  feathers  in  America,  rather  than 
yield  to  the  custom  prevalent  there  of  not  admitting  colored  breth- 
ren into  our  friendship,  shall  we  yield  to  parallel  custom  or 
prejudice  against  women  in  Old  England  ? 

"We  cannot  yield  this  question  if  we  would,  for  it  is  a  matter 
of  conscience.  But  we  would  not  yield  it  on  the  ground  of  expe- 
diency. In  doing  so,  we  should  feel  that  we  were  striking  off  the 
right  arm  of  our  enterprise.  We  could  not  go  back  to  America 
to  ask  for  any  aid  from  the  women  of  Massachusetts  if  we  had 
deserted  them  when  they  chose  to  send  out  their  own  sisters  as 
their  representatives  here  :  we  could  not  go  back  to  Massachusetts, 
and  assert  the  unchangeableness  of  spirit  on  the  question.  We 
have  argued  it  over  and  over  again,  and  decided  it  time  after  time, 
in  every  society  in  the  land,  in  favor  of  the  women.  We  have  not 
changed  by  crossing  the  water.  We  stand  here  the  advocates  of 
the  same  principle  that  we  contend  for  in  America.  We  think  it 
right  for  women  to  sit  by  our  side  there,  and  we  think  it  right  for 
them  to  do  the  same  here.  We  ask  the  convention  to  admit  them : 
if  they  do  not  choose  to  grant  it,  the  responsibility  rests  on  their 
shoulders.  Massachusetts  cannot  turn  aside,  or  succumb  to  any 
prejudices  or  customs,  even  in  the  land  she  looks  upon  with  so 
much  reverence  as  the  land  of  Wilberforce,  of  Clarkson,  and  of 
O'Connell.  It  is  a  matter  of  conscience,  and  British  virtue  ought 
not  to  ask  us  to  yield.'* 

Mr.  Ashurst,  in  advocating  the  admission  of  the 
women  to  the  convention,  put  the  question  very  plainly 
by  saying,  — 


100        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"You  are  convened  to  influence  society  upon  a  subject  con- 
nected with  the  kindliest  feelings  of  our  nature;  and  being  the 
first  assembly  met  to  shake  hands  with  other  nations,  and  employ 
your  combined  efforts  to  annihilate  slavery  throughout  the  world, 
are  you  to  commence  by  saying  you  will  take  away  the  rights 
of  one-half  of  creation?  This  is  the  principle  which  you  are 
putting  forward." 

He  was  opposed  by  another  clergyman,  the  Rev.  A. 
Harvey  of  Glasgow.  He  claimed  that  he  had  certain 
views  in  relation  to  the  teaching  of  the  word  of  God, 
and  of  the  "  particular  "  sphere  in  which  woman  is  to 
act.  "  I  must  say,"  he  remarked,  "  if  I  were  to  give  a 
vote  in  favor  of  females  sitting  and  deliberating  in  such 
an  assembly  as  this,  that  I  should  be  acting  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  plain  teaching  of  the  word  of  God."  The 
exquisite  refinement  of  this  apostle's  conscience  almost 
carried  the  convention  and  put  a  stop  to  debate. 

After  a  little  delay,  however,  other  speakers  took  the 
floor,  and  talked  to  a  late  hour.  Then  the  vote  was 
taken,  and  by  an  overwhelming  majority  the  women 
were  excluded  as  delegates  to  the  convention. 

"I  hope,"  said  Mr.  Thompson,  —  the  same  George 
Thompson  whom  the  Boston  aristocrats  sought  to 
molest,  and  who,  true  to  the  spirit  that  always  gov- 
erned his  acts,  was  now  in  favor  of  the  women,  —  "I 
hope,  as  the  question  is  now  decided,  that  Mr.  Phillips 
will  give  us  the  assurance  that  we  shall  proceed  with 
one  heart  and  one  mind." 


THE  WORLD'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  CONVENTION.    101 

-"I  have  no  doubt  of  it,"  replied  Mr.  Phillips. 
"  There  is  no  unpleasant  feeling  in  our  minds.  I  have 
no  doubt  the  women  will  sit  with  as  much  interest 
behind  the  bar  as  though  the  original  proposition  had 
been  carried  in  the  affirmative.  All  we  asked  was  an 
expression  of  an  opinion ;  and,  having  obtained  it,  we 
shall  now  act  with  the  utmost  cordiality." 

Mr.  Phillips  has  been  criticised,  even  by  his  most 
ardent  admirers,  for  supposing,  that,  after  being  rejected 
as  delegates,  these  women  would  "sit  with  a*  much 
interest  behind  the  bar,  as  in  the  convention."  Why, 
they  ask,  did  he  not  himself  refuse  longer  to  take  part 
in  the  deliberations  of  the  convention  ? 

Such  criticism  is  certainly  injudicious.  To  stand  in 
that  august  assembly,  and  maintain  the  unpopular 
heresy  of  woman's  equality,  was  a  severe  ordeal  for  a 
young  man  to  pass  through ;  and  Wendell  Phillips,  who 
accepted  the  odium  of  presenting  this  question  to  the 
convention,  earned  for  all  time  the  sincere  gratitude  of 
womankind.  Every  phase  of  his  course  at  that  con- 
vention was  above  criticism.  The  calm  demeanor, 
mingled  with  kind  regrets,  of  Mr.  Thompson,  alone 
sufficed  to  disarm  resentment.  It  would  have  been 
rash  indeed,  if,  under  such  circumstances,  Mr.  Phillips 
had  so  far  lost  sight  of  the  real  object  of  the  conven- 
tion as  to  have  imperilled  this  object  by  any  action 
tending  to  paralyze  its  results. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PROGKESS  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE. 

Phillips  arrives  Home  from  Europe.  —  Limited  Acquaintanceship.  — 
Letter  to  George  Thompson.  —  The  "Remond  Case."  — A  Peti- 
tion to  the  Legislature,  and  its  Result.  —  The  Address  of  O'  Connell 
and  his  Fellow-Countrymen.  —  Arrest  of  George  Latimer.  —  The 
Action  of  the  Legislature.  —  A  Voice  in  Congress.  —  Phillips  argues 
for  Disunion.  — Discussion.  — An  Interesting  Letter.  — Mobs. 

"  Agitate,  and  we  shall  yet  see  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  rule  even  Boston." 

"  The  community  that  will  not  protect  its  most  ignorant  and  unpopular  member 

in  the  free  utterance  of  his  opinions,  no  matter  how  false  or  hateful,  is  only  a  gang 

of  slaves." 

"  If  our  agitation  has  not  been  wisely  planned  and  conducted,  explain  for  us  the 

history  of  the  last  twenty  years !    Experience  is  a  safe  light  to  walk  by,  and  he  is 

not  a  rash  man  who  expects  success  in  future  from  the  same  means  which  have 

secured  it  in  times  past."  — PHILLIPS. 

the  12th  of  July,  1841,  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  wife 
arrived  home  in  Boston.  During  their  sojourn  on 
the  Continent,  they  visited  many  places  of  interest  in 
France,  Italy,  and  Great  Britain,  but  made  few  ac- 
quaintances. In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Davis  of  Phila- 
delphia, who  applied  to  him,  in  1845,  for  letters  of 
introduction  to  notables  living  on  the  Continent,  he 
says,  — 

"As  to  the  second  note  about  foreign  parts,  let  me  say  I  trav- 
elled with  a  sick  wife,  and  made  no  acquaintances.     One  or  two 
102 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       103 

friends  in  Paris  completed  the  list,  and  they  have  since  removed 
home  here.  I  would  add  some  letters  to  those  you  ask  for  Eng- 
land, but  that  M.  W.  C.  and  W.  L.  G.  are  infinitely  better  names 
for  backers  than  mine." 

While  Phillips  was  abroad,  he  addressed  an  open 
letter  to  George  Thompson  in  support  of  the  effort 
then  making  in  England  to  supersede  American  cotton 
by  stimulating  the  production  of  cotton  in  India.  A 
single  extract  from  this  earnest  and  eloquent  document 
will  bear  quotation  in  this  place :  — 

"  How  shall  we  address  that  large  class  of  men  to  whom  dollars 
are  always  a  weightier  consideration  than  duties,  prices  current 
stronger  argument  than  proofs  of  holy  writ?  Our  appeal  has 
been  entreaty ;  for  the  times  in  America  are  those  *  pursy  times  * 

when,  — 

'  Virtue  itself  of  Vice  must  pardon  beg, 
Yea,  curb  and  woo  for  leave  to  do  him  good.' 

"  But  from  India  a  voice  comes,  clothed  with  the  omnipotence 
of  self-interest ;  and  the  wisdom  which  might  have  been  slighted 
from  the  pulpit,  will  be  to  such  men  oracular  from  the  market- 
place. Gladly  will  we  make  a  pilgrimage,  and  bow  with  more 
than  Eastern  devotion  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  if  his  holy 
waters  shall  be  able  to  wear  away  the  fetters  of  the  slave.  God 
speed  the  progress  of  your  society !  May  it  soon  find  in  its  ranks 
the  whole  phalanx  of  scarred  and  veteran  abolitionists,  —  no 
single  divided  effort,  but  a  united  one  to  grapple  with  the  wealth, 
influence,  and  power  embattled  against  you!  Is  it  not  Schiller 
who  says,  '  Divide  the  thunder  into  single  tones,  and  it  becomes  a 
lullaby  for  children ;  but  pour  it  forth  in  one  quick  peal,  and  the 
royal  sound  shall  shake  the  heavens '  ?  So  may  it  be  with  you ! 
and  God  grant,  that,  without  waiting  for  the  United  States  to  be 


104        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

consistent,  before  we  are  dust  the  jubilee  of  emancipated  millions 
may  reach  us  fror*  Mexico  to  the  Potomac,  and  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Kocky  Mountains ! " 

One  of  the  most  active  and  energetic  workers  in 
the  cause  of  anti-slavery,  at  this  time,  was  a  well-bred 
and  well-educated  colored  man  named  Charles  Lenox 
Remond.  His  home  was  in  Salem,  Mass.,  where  his 
parents  also  resided.  In  1838  he  was  appointed  an 
agent  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Society,  in 
which  capacity  he  rendered  abundant  and  valuable 
services.  He  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  year  1841 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  where  he  lectured  before 
many  large  audiences. 

Mr.  Phillips's  interest  in  Charles  L.  Remond  took  him 
to  Salem,  on  Remond's  return  from  a  trip  to  Europe ; 
and  a  scene  in  the  old  low  Salem  depot,  as  related  by 
him  and  Remond  before  a  committee  of  the  Legislature 
in  that  year,  shows  that  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of 
the  colored  people  was  well  prompted. 

They  took  seats  side  by  side  in  one  of  the  little  old 
cars  of  that  date.  A  person  in  authority  came  in,  and 
ordered  Remond  to  take  his  seat  in  a  rear  second-class 
car,  a  mere  box  with  pine  seats.  Mr.  Phillips  accom- 
panied Remond  to  the  inferior  car,  and  seated  himself 
beside  him.  Mr.  Phillips  was  told  that  he  could  not 
remain  there,  as  it  was  only  for  colored  persons.  Mr. 
Phillips,  deprived  of  the  society  of  his  friend,  rode  in 
another  car  to  Boston. 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       105 

The  appeal  of  Remond  to  the  superintendent  of  the 
railroad,  who  stood  and  conversed  with  him  at  the  door 
of  the  colored  people's  car,  and  the  cool,  unfeeling, 
though  by  no  means  insulting,  replies  of  the  superin- 
tendent, who  was  a  prominent  citizen  of  Salem  and  a 
gentleman  of  character,  were  as  nigh  pathetic  as  related 
by  Remond  before  the  committee  as  any  words  ever 
heard  from  human  lips.  They  had  no  effect  on  the 
Legislature ;  for,  a  year  or  two  later,  a  poor  black  girl, 
with  her  little  bundle,  who  had  made  the  same  mistake 
as  Remond,  was  driven  out  of  the  car,  —  the  train  being 
stopped  for  the  purpose  on  one  of  those  precipitous 
embankments  between  the  islands  on  the  old  East- 
Boston  route,  —  and,  screaming  and  crying  for  fear  she 
should  be  left,  scrambled  along  the  fearful  outside  to 
the  negro-car.  All  the  passengers  beheld  the  outrage 
with  absolute  indifference.  Such  was  the  cowardly 
indecision  in  regard  to  human  rights  which  prevailed 
at  that  time. 

On  the  evening  of  Jan.  28,  1842,  a  large  and  over- 
whelming meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Boston  was  held 
in  the  old  Cradle  of  Liberty,  favorable  to  the  imme- 
diate abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
The  resolutions,  denouncing  Congress  for  permitting 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  were  adopted  by 
an  almost  unanimous  vote,  and  in  the  most  impressive 
manner. 

The    Irish    address,   signed    by   Daniel    O'Connell, 


106        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Father  Mathew,  and  sixty  thousand  other  Irishmen,  to 
the  Irish  residents  in  the  United  States,  calling  upon 
them  unitedly  to  espouse  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and  to- 
identify  themselves  with  the  American  abolitionists, 
was  then  read,  and  received  by  the  immense  assem- 
blage with  cheers  and  loud  acclamation  of  applause. 
A  large  number  of  the  Irish  inhabitants  of  Boston  and 
vicinity  were  present,  and  responded  to  the  sentiments 
of  the  address,  and  to  those  which  were  uttered  by  the 
various  speakers,  in  the  most  enthusiastic  manner. 

Mr.  Phillips  offered  the  following  resolutions,  which 
he  very  eloquently  advocated,  and  which  were  adopted 
by  acclamation :  — 

"Resolved,  That  the  voice  of  O'Connell,  which  now  shakes  three 
kingdoms,  has  poured  across  the  waters  a  thunder-peal  for  the 
cause  of  liberty  in  our  own  land;  and  Father  Mathew,  having 
lifted,  with  one  hand,  five  millions  of  his  own  countrymen  into 
moral  life,  has  stretched  forth  the  other  —  which  may  Heaven  make 
equally  potent !  —  to  smite  off  the  fetters  of  the  American  slave. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  receive,  with  the  deepest  gratitude,  the 
names  of  the  sixty  thousand  Irishmen,  who,  in  the  trial-hour  of 
their  own  struggle  for  liberty,  have  not  forgotten  the  slave  on  this 
side  of  the  water;  that  we  accept  with  triumphant  exultation  the 
address  they  have  forwarded  to  us,  and  pledge  ourselves  to  circu- 
late it  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land,  till  the  pulse  of 
every  man,  and  especially  every  man  who  claims  Irish  parentage, 
beats  true  to  the  claims  of  patriotism  and  humanity." 

He  then  made  an  address,  which,  by  reason  of  its 
importance,  is  here  given  in  full :  — 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       107 

"I  hold  in  my  band,  Mr.  Chairman,  a  resolution  expressive  of 
our  thanks  to  the  sixty  thousand  Irishmen  who  have  sent  us  that 
token  of  their  sympathy  and  interest,  and  especially  to  those  high 
and  gallant  spirits  who  lead  the  noble  list.  I  must  say,  that  never 
have  I  stood  in  the  presence  of  an  audience  with  higher  hopes  of 
the  rapid  progress  and  success  of  our  cause  than  now.  I  remem- 
ber with  what  devoted  earnestness,  with  what  unfaltering  zeal, 
Ireland  has  carried  on  so  many  years  the  struggle  for  her  own 
freedom.  It  is  from  such  men  —  whose  hearts  lost  no  jot  of  their 
faith  in  the  grave  of  Emmet,  over  whose  zeal  the  loss  of  Curran 
and  Grattan  could  throw  no  damp,  who  are  now  turning  the 
trophies  of  one  field  of  victory  into  weapons  for  new  conquests, 
whom  a  hireling  press  and  prejudiced  public  could  never  sever  a 
moment  from  O'Connell's  side,  —  it  is  from  the  sympathy  of  such 
that  we  have  a  right  to  hope  much. 

"  The  image  of  the  generous  Isle  comes  to  us,  not  only  '  crowned 
with  the  spoil  of  every  science,  and  decked  with  the  wreath  of 
every  muse ; '  but  we  cannot  forget  that  she  lent  to  Waterloo  the 
sword  which  cut  the  despot's  *  shattered  sceptre  through ; '  and,  to 
American  ears,  the  crumbled  walls  of  St.  Stephen's  yet  stand  to 
echo  the  eloquence  of  her  Burke,  when,  at  the  foot  of  the  British 
throne,  he  took  his  place  side  by  side  with  that  immortal  rebel 
[pointing  to  the  picture  of  Washington]. 

"  From  a  priest  of  the  Catholic  Church  we  might  expect  supe- 
riority to  that  prejudice  against  color  which  freezes  the  sympa- 
thies of  our  own  churches  when  humanity  points  to  the  slave.  I 
remember  that  African  lips  may  join  in  the  chants  of  the  Church, 
unrebuked,  even  under  the  dome  at  St.  Peter's ;  and  I  have  seen 
the  colored  man  in  the  sacred  dress  pass  with  priest  and  student 
beneath  the  frowning  portals  of  the  Propaganda  College  at  Rome, 
with  none  to  sneer  at  his  complexion,  or  repulse  him  from  society. 

"  I  remember  that  a  long  line  of  popes,  from  Leo  to  Gregory, 


108        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

have  denounced  the  sin  of  making  merchandise  of  men ;  that  the 
voice  of  Rome  was  the  first  to  be  heard  against  the  slave-trade ; 
and  that  the  bull  of  Gregory  XVI.,  forbidding  every  true  Catholic 
to  touch  the  accursed  thing,  is  yet  hardly  a  year  old. 

"  Ireland  is  the  land  of  agitation  and  agitators.  We  may  well 
learn  a  lesson  from  her  in  the  battle  of  human  rights.  Her  phi- 
losophy is  no  recluse :  she  doffs  the  cowl,  and  quits  the  cloister,  to 
grasp  in  friendly  effort  the  hands  of  the  people.  No  pulse  beats 
truer  to  liberty,  to  humanity,  than  those  which  in  Dublin  quicken 
at  every  good  from  abolition  on  this  side  of  the  ocean.  There  can 
be  no  warmer  words  of  welcome  than  those  which  welcome  the 
American  abolitionists  on  their  thresholds.  Let  not  any  one  per- 
suade us,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  question  of  slavery  is  no  business 
of  ours,  but  belongs  entirely  to  the  South. 

"  I  trust  in  that  love  of  liberty  which  every  Irishman  brings  to 
the  country  of  his  adoption,  to  make  him  true  to  her  cause  at  the 
ballot-box,  and  throw  no  vote  without  asking  if  the  hand  to  which 
he  is  about  to  trust  political  power  will  use  it  for  the  slave.  When 
an  American  was  introduced  to  O'Connell  in  the  lobby  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  asked,  without  putting  out  his  hand,  '  Are 
you  from  the  South  ? '  —  *  Yes,  sir.'  —  *  A  slaveholder,  I  presume  ? ' 
—  'Yes,  sir.'  —  'Then,' said  the  great  liberator,  'I  have  no  hand 
for  you  ! '  and  stalked  away.  Shall  his  countrymen  trust  that  hand 
with  political  power  which  O'Connell  deemed  it  pollution  to  touch  ? 

"  We  remember,  Mr.  Chairman,  that,  when  a  jealous  disposition 
tore  from  the  walls  of  the  City  Hall  of  Dublin  the  picture  of 
Henry  Grattau,  the  act  but  did  endear  him  the  more  to  Ireland. 
The  slavocracy  of  our  land  thinks  to  expel  that  '  old  man  eloquent ' 
with  the  dignity  of  seventy  winters  on  his  brow  (pointing  to  a 
picture  of  J.  Q.  Adams)  from  the  halls  of  Congress.  They  will 
find  him  only  the  more  lastingly  fixed  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen. 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       109 

"Mr.  Chairman,  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  at  least  the  name 
of  Father  Mathew.  We  remember  the  millions  who  pledged 
themselves  to  temperance  from  his  lips.  I  hope  his  countrymen 
will  join  with  me  in  pledging  here,  eternal  hostility  to  slavery. 
Will  you  ever  return  to  his  master  the  slave  who  once  sets  foot  on 
the  soil  of  Massachusetts?  [No,  no,  no!]  Will  you  ever  raise 
to  office  or  power  the  man  who  will  not  pledge  his  utmost  effort 
against  slavery  ?  [No,  no,  no  1] 

"  Then,  may  we  not  hope  well  for  freedom  ?  Thanks  to  those 
noble  men  who  battle  in  her  cause  the  world  over.  The  '  ocean 
of  their  philanthropy  knows  no  shore.'  Humanity  knows  no 
country;  and  I  am  proud,  here  in  Faneuil  Hall,  fit  place  to 
receive  their  message,  to  learn  of  O'Connell's  fidelity  to  freedom, 
and  of  Father  Mathew's  love  to  the  real  interests  of  man." 

These  remarks  were  received  with  unbounded  ap- 
plause. With  nine  cheers,  the  vast  assembly  —  the  in- 
fluence of  which  was  soon  felt  throughout  the  country 
—  adjourned. 

It  appears  in  the  records  of  those  eventful  days,  — 
strange  as  it  may  seem  now,  —  that  the  anti-slavery 
address  of  O'Connell  and  his  sixty  thousand  country- 
men was  not  received  well  by  the  Irish  residents  in 
the  United  States.  The  ebullition  of  enthusiasm  at  the 
meeting  held  in  Faneuil  Hall  soon  cooled  down,  and 
a  feeling  characterized  by  marked  indifference  ensued. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  held  in 
January,  1843,  Mr.  Garrison  offered  a  resolution  bear- 
ing upon  this  indifference  and  neglect,  and-  declaring 
the  same  as  "deeply  dishonorable  to  the  Irish  of  this 


110        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

country,  and  a  shame  to  the  land  of  their  birth ;  prov- 
ing that  Ireland  has  not  sent  us  her  true  children,  or 
that  the  democratic  climate  of  New  England  is  fatal 
to  the  liberty-loving  spirit." 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  (1842),  George  Latimer, 
a  native  colored  man  of  Virginia,  was  arrested  in 
Boston  without  a  warrant,  and  claimed  as  a  slave.  The 
case  was  brought  before  the  courts,  where  Chief  Jus- 
tice Shaw  ruled  that  "  the  statute  of  the  United  States 
authorizes  the  owner  of  the  fugitive  slave  to  arrest 
him  in  any  State  to  which  he  may  have  fled." 

As  soon  as  tidings  of  this  proceeding  were  spread 
abroad,  the  intensest  excitement  prevailed.  On  the 
30th  of  October  —  a  sabbath  evening — a  large  body  of 
citizens  met  in  Faneuil  Hall.  Speeches  were  made, 
and  resolutions  were  presented,  protesting,  "  by  all  the 
glorious  memories  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  in  the 
names  of  justice,  liberty,  and  right,  in  the  awful  name 
of  God,  against  the  deliverance  of  George  Latimer 
into  the  hands  of  his  pursuers." 

Letters  were  also  read  from  John  Quincy  Adams, 
George  Bancroft,  Samuel  Hoar,  William  B.  Calhoun, 
and  others.  Amid  hisses  and  uproar,  Wendell  Phil- 
lips sought  to  speak.  "  When  I  look,"  he  said,  "  upon 
the  crowded  thousands,  and  see  them  trample  on  their 
consciences  and  the  rights  of  their  fellow-men  at  the 
bidding  of  a  piece  of  parchment,  I  say,  l  My  curse  be 
upon  the  Constitution  of  these  United  States ! ' " 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       Ill 

A  few  days  later  a  petition,  signed  by  many  influen- 
tial citizens,  was  presented  to  the  sheriff,  demanding 
the  dismissal  of  the  jailer.  At  the  same  time  another 
petition  was  prepared,  requesting  Gov.  Davis  to  dismiss 
the  sheriff  unless  he  removed  the  jailer.  Then  it  was 
that  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Colver  agreed  to  pay  the  sum 
of  four  hundred  dollars  "  on  the  delivery  of  free  papers, 
and  the  surrender  of  the  power  of  attorney  to  reclaim 
his  wife."  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  Latimer  was 
released. 

The  excitement,  however,  did  not  end  here.  A  con. 
vention  was  held,  and  a  petition  was  presented  to  the 
Legislature,  praying  that  body  to  "forbid  all  persons 
holding  office  under  the  laws  of  the  State  from  aiding 
in  the  arrest  or  detention  of  persons  claimed  as  fugi- 
tives from  slavery ;  to  forbid  the  use  of  jails,  or  other 
public  property,  for  their  detention ,  and  to  prepare 
amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution  that  should 
forever  separate  the  people  of  the  State  from  all  con- 
nection  with  slavery." 

Subsequently,  certain  resolves  of  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  proposing  to  Congress  to  recommend, 
according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Fifth  Article  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  an  amendment  to 
the  said  Constitution,  in  effect  abolishing  the  represen- 
tation for  slaves,  and  signed  by  fifty  thousand  of  the 
citizens  of  the  State,  were  laid  upon  the  desk  of  John 
Quincy  Adams. 


112        LIFE  AND   TINES   OF    \VENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  resolutions  were  presented  to  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, Dec.  21,  1843.  A  great  sensation  was  the 
result.  Said  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Virginia,  "  I  say  sol- 
emnly before  God,  as  a  Southern  man,  that  we  are 
worsted  in  this  fight.  From  this  day  forth  and  forever, 
I  withdraw  from  the  fight.  I  say  to  my  constituents, 
that,  the  way  this  battle  has  been  fought,  there  is  no 
hope  for  your  rights.  Your  interests  are  doomed  to  be 
destroyed." 

The  New-England  Anti-slavery  Convention,  held  in 
May,  1843,  yielded  to  none  of  its  predecessors  in  in- 
terest to  its  members  and  in  advantage  to  the  cause. 
During  the  day  the  meetings  were  held  in  the  Taber- 
nacle in  Howard  Street :  the  evening  sessions  were 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall.  The  convention  had  ordered 
an  address  to  the  slaves  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
subject  of  their  rights,  duties,  and  hopes ;  and  another 
to  John  Tyler,  —  who  was  shortly  expected  in  Boston, 
to  assist  at  the  Bunker-hill  Monument  celebration, — 
requesting  him  to  emancipate  his  slaves,  to  be  prepared. 
Both  addresses  were  submitted  to  the  convention  in 
Faneuil  Hall.  The  address  to  Mr.  Tyler  was  read  by 
Mr.  Phillips,  and  was  enforced  with  a  speech  of  great 
power. 

This  convention  was  the  moving  cause  of  the  great 
movement  of  the  year,  best  known  by  the  appella- 
tion of  the  Hundred  Conventions.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  year  about  twenty  conventions  were  held  in  as 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       113 

many  towns,  chiefly  in  Middlesex,  Worcester,  Norfolk, 
and  Plymouth  Counties,  in  Massachusetts  alone.  A 
course  of  anti-slavery  lectures  was  given  during  the 
winter,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Boston  Female  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  by  Messrs.  Pierpont,  Phillips,  Quincy, 
Garrison,  Douglass,  Bradburn,  and  Remond,  the  success 
of  which  was  highly  encouraging.  In  the  summer 
season  Mr.  Phillips  did  excellent  work  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boston,  and  introduced  the  subject  of 
abolition  into  places  where  it  had  scarcely  been  men- 
tioned before.  During  the  year  Mr.  Phillips  was 
elected  general  agent  of  the  society.  He  retained  the 
position  until  May,  1845,  when  the  pressure  of  other 
duties  forced  him,  with  regret,  to  resign. 

In  1843  arose  in  the  Garrisonian  ranks  the  discussion 
whether  an  abolitionist  could  rightfully  vote  or  take 
office  under  the  Constitution  of  the  land,  which  rec- 
ognized slavery,  gave  it  a  special  representation  in 
Congress,  and  ordered  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves. 
Inasmuch  as  every  officeholder  swore  to  support  the 
Constitution,  and  as  every  voter  did  so  implicitly,  and 
indeed  by  his  vote  asked  his  candidate  to  take  such  an 
oath,  it  was  urged  that  no  consistent  abolitionist  could 
either  vote  or  take  office. 

Two  years  before  this,  Mr.  Phillips  had  taken  this 
ground,  and  had  refused  to  continue  to  practise  in  the 
courts  where  an  oath  to  the  Constitution  was  required 
of  each  attorney.  He  started  the  discussion  in  the 


114        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

anti-slavery  ranks,  and  in  1844  published  an  argu- 
ment, entitled  "  Can  Abolitionists  vote  or  take  Office 
under  the  United-States  Constitution?"  in  defence  of 
this  position,  which  was  unanimously  assumed  by  the 
American  Anti-slavery  Society  in  the  same  year. 

The  resolution,  written  by  Mr.  Phillips,  is  in  the 
following  words:  — 

"Resolved,  That  secession  from  the  present  United-States  Gov- 
ernment is  the  duty  of  every  abolitionist ;  since  no  one  can  take 
office  under  the  United-States  Constitution  without  violating  his 
anti-slavery  principles,  and  rendering  himself  an  abetter  of  the 
slaveholder  in  his  sin." 

In  1843  the  question  whether  it  was  not  the  duty 
of  the  people  of  the  free  States  to  dissolve  their  polit- 
ical relations  with  the  South,  began  to  be  discussed 
by  Mr.  Garrison  in  the  colums  of  "  The  Liberator." 
It  was,  of  course,  a  startling  proposition ;  and  many  abo- 
litionists, who  had  all  along  supposed  that  their  move- 
ment had  a  tendency  to  preserve  the  Union,  shrank 
back  from  it  with  dread.  The  discussion,  however, 
was  steadily  maintained,  until  at  length  the  American 
society,  and  then  the  whole  Garrisonian  phalanx,  swung 
solidly  round  to  the  same  position,  and  the  movement 
carried  aloft  the  banner,  "No  union  with  slaveholders." 

Mr.  Francis  Jackson  resigned  his  office  of  justice  of 
the  peace  on  the  same  grounds.  From  this  year  until 
1861,  the  cry  of  disunion  was  proclaimed  in  the  anti- 
slavery  journals,  in  pamphlets  and  tracts,  in  innu- 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVEET  CAUSE.       115 

merable  conventions,  and  by  the  voices  of  a  host  of 
lecturers,  with  Garrison  and  Phillips  at  its  head. 

In  laying  down  his  office,  Mr.  Jackson  wrote  a  letter 
containing  a  calm  but  clear  and  able  exposition  of  the 
reasons  which  made  this  course  the  only  one  he  could 
honestly  pursue.  He  analyzed  the  Constitution,  and 
showed  what  were  its  compromises,  the  unworthy  ser- 
vices which  they  demanded  of  the  North,  and  the 
political  servitude  to  the  slave-power  with  which  it 
had  been  visited  in  consequence  of  its  consenting  to 
them.  "That  part  of  the  Constitution,"  said  he, 
"which  provides  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves, 
I  never  have  supported,  and  never  will.  I  will  join 
in  no  slave-hunt.  My  door  shall  stand  open,  as  it 
has  long  stood,  to  the  panting  and  trembling  victim 
of  the  slave-hunter.  When  I  shut  it  against  him,  may 
God  shut  the  door  of  his  mercy  against  me ! " 

He  thus  concluded  his  letter :  — 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  both  in  theory  and 
practice,  is  so  utterly  broken  down  by  the  influence  and  effect  of 
slavery,  so  imbecile  for  the  highest  good  of  the  nation,  and  so 
powerful  for  evil,  that  I  can  give  no  voluntary  assistance  in  hold- 
ing it  up  any  longer.  Henceforth  it  is  dead  to  me,  and  I  to  it.  I 
withdraw  all  professions  of  allegiance  to  it,  and  all  my  voluntary 
efforts  to  sustain  it.  The  burdens  that  it  lays  upon  me,  while  it 
is  held  up  by  others,  I  shall  endeavor  to  bear  patiently,  yet  acting 
with  reference  to  a  higher  law,  and  distinctly  declaring,  that,  while 
I  retain  my  own  liberty,  I  will  be  a  party  to  no  compact  which 
helps  to  rob  any  other  man  of  his.'* 


116        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

This  letter,  coming  as  it  did  from  no  hot-brained 
enthusiast,  but  from  a  man  long  known  and  valued  for 
his  practical  good  sense,  and  talent  for  the  world's 
business,  attracted  a  wide  attention,  and  produced  a 
deep  impression.  It  was  as  well  timed  as  it  was  well 
executed,  and  embodied  the  views  of  his  fellow-aboli- 
tionists in  a  tangible  and  intelligible  shape. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  that,  in  the  sixteen  years  im- 
mediately preceding  the  civil  war,  this  "  disunion " 
movement  did  much  to  prepare  the  Northern  people 
for  the  crisis  which  was  coming,  and  through  which 
they  were  called  to  pass.  Whether  it  hastened  the 
struggle,  is  another  question.  It  taught  the  North  to 
assert  that  further  compromise  with  the  slave-power 
was  impossible :  it  encouraged  the  North  to  do  and 
dare  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  It  taught  the  South  that 
the  principle  of  morality  was  stronger  than  the  Con- 
stitution which  was  so  long  a  main  dependence  of  the 
slave-power ;  and  it  at  least  forced  from  the  lips  of  Mr. 
Wise,  and  from  those  who  shared  his  foresight,  the 
confession  that  Southern  interests  in  the  slave-power 
were  doomed  to  be  destroyed. 

In  an  interesting  letter  addressed  to  his  friend  Ed- 
ward M.  Davis,  Mr.  Phillips  thus  writes,  under  date 
of  "May  23,  1844:"  — 

"  Now  for  questions. 

"  What  is  supporting,  etc.  ? 

"  Why,  when  an  officer  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  instrument 


PEOGEESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVEEY  CAUSE.       117 

which  prescribes  his  duties,  does  it  not  mean  he  will  perform  those 
duties  ? 

"Why  have  oaths? 

"  To  secure  the  carrying  out  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, are  they  not?  Did  not  South  Carolina,  when  the  compromise 
was  made  in  1789,  rely  on  the  oath  of  Massachusetts,  and  go  home 
confident  that  the  clauses  of  that  compromise  would  be  fairly  car- 
ried out,  because  all  officers  were  to  be  sworn  to  do  so  in  all  coming 
time  ?  If  the  officers  of  the  United  States  do  not  in  their  official 
capacity  do  what  the  Constitution  prescribes,  then  that  instrument 
is  a  dead  letter.  Now,  in  order  that  it  may  live,  it  enjoins  that 
they  shall  be  sworn  to  support  it.  Suppose  a  case :  A  man  claims 
his  slave ;  the  judge  refuses  to  act.  Would  it  not  be  fair  argument 
for  the  slaveholder  to  retort,  '  You,  sir,  assumed  a  place,  and  swore 
to  perform  its  duties :  this,  you  allow,  is  one  (whether  morally  right, 
or  not,  is  not  the  question) ;  it  is  one  set  down  in  the  bond.  Do 
you  keep  your  oath,  sir,  when  you  refuse  this  part  of  your  office  ? 
I  have  a  claim  on  you.' 

"Suppose  the  judge  to  say,  'Now  this  case  has  arisen,  I  will 
resign.'  Would  it  not  be  fair  to  reply  to  him,  « The  country  placed 
you  in  a  certain  post :  you  have  no  right  to  determine  beforehand, 
that,  on  a  certain  duty  arising,  you  will  not  perform  it.*  Suppose 
a  general  to  assume  command,  and  lead  his  army  to  the  field,  and 
then,  just  as  the  fight  began,  —  resign. 

"  If  the  oath  is  any  thing  but  humbug,  it  means,  that,  while  the 
Constitution  remains  as  it  is,  I  will  obey  and  carry  it  out  as  it  is. 

"  If  it  don't  mean  this,  what  does  it  mean  ? 

"2d,  Does  a  man  support  by  taking  office  when  he  votes  against 
all  pro-slavery  measures  ? 

"  Try  it.  Is  not  his  position  more  than  his  vote  ?  The  senator's 
duty  is  to  concur  in  the  appointment  of  judges  whose  duty  it  is  to 
return  fugitive  slaves. 


118        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"3d,  Can  an  abolitionist  ask  and  authorize  a  man  to  assume 
such  an  office  as  that  of  judge? 

"  The  representative  is  to  carry  out  by  appropriate  laws  the  pro- 
slavery  clauses  of  the  Constitution.  He  may  be  called  to  elect  the 
President,  who  is  pledged  to  put  down  domestic  violence,  etc. :  he  is 
to  vote  the  salaries  of  the  executive  officers,  whose  duties  are  some 
of  them  pro-slavery. 

"  Now,  if,  while  he  does  these  things,  he  votes  against  some  pro- 
slavery  measures,  is  he  innocent  ? 

"  To  vote  against  every  thing  which  touches  slavery  would  stop 
the  wheels  of  government.  Shall  he  vote  supplies  for  the  Florida 
war?  But  I  have  no  time  to  enlarge  on  these  points.  I  will  only 
ask,  Can  the  man  who  has  just  sworn,  as  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  to  support  the  Constitution,  shelter  a  fugitive 
slave  in  his  house,  detain,  and  conceal  him  from  his  master  ?  Is 
this  honest  dealing,  as  between  man  and  man  ? 

"4th,  Does  not  this  strike  a  blow  against  all  human  govern- 
ments ?  Answer  first,  Don't  know :  if  it's  right,  don't  care.  Sec- 
ond, No  :  we  submit,  and  carry  out  the  will  of  the  majority  rightfully 
in  all  cases  not  moral,  not  of  conscience ;  and  government  must  be 
so  arranged  that  it  shall  be  understood  that  no  man  will  take  any 
office  under  it  which  requires  him  to  violate  his  conscience,  or 
fail  in  his  duty.  I  could  go  into  the  House  of  Commons  now,  and 
vote  away  right  and  left  without  violating  my  conscience. 

"5th,  Is  the  position  taken  for  consistency?  Then,  why  pay 
taxes? 

"  Taxes  are  not  voluntary.  Did  Jesus  support  Nero  when  he 
paid  a  tax?  I  seek  to  be  in  this  country  like  an  alien,  a  traveller. 
Such  can't  avoid  indirect  taxation ;  but  are  they  responsible  for  the 
use  government  makes  of  the  money?  Of  course  not.  We  are 
not  responsible  for  that  we  can't  prevent.  Now,  I  can  prevent  my 
money  going  to  government  only  in  two  ways,  —  by  voting,  which 


PROGRESS   OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CAUSE.       119 

is  wrong ;  by  leaving  the  country,  which  no  one  is  required  to  do, 
because  God  placing  us  here  is  the  highest  title  and  message  of 
duty  we  can  have. 

"  I  don't  think  the  position  contravenes  our  section  seven  Con- 
stitution and  preamble.  Does  taking  away  a  political  influence 
weaken  us  ?  It  does  not  take  away  our  political  influence,  only  our 
voting.  Who  has  had  more  influence  on  the  politics  of  this  coun- 
try than  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  —  yet  not  by  voting  ?  <  The  Ed- 
inburgh Review '  has  political  influence  in  this  country :  such  we 
retain,  and  much  more.  . 

"  If  it  did  take  it  away,  the  question  still  is,  Can  we  rightfully 
retain  it  ?  Does  giving  up  voting  weaken  us  ?  Us  it  may :  we 
may  fall  into  oblivion  and  neglect.  Probably.  But  the  non-voting 
position,  by  its  disinterestedness,  its  consistency,  its  high  tone,  its 
absence  of  suspicion,  gives  tenfold  stronger  hold  on  those  about  us 
to  make  them  act. 

"  Never  forget  the  distinction  between  weakening  us  and  weak- 
ening the  cause." 

In  1845  Mr.  Phillips,  in  order  to  aid  the  discussion, 
printed  an  argument  entitled,  "The  Constitution  a 
Pro-slavery  Contract ;  or,  Selections  from  the  Madison 
Papers,"  the  preface  to  which  ends  thus :  — 

"  If,  then,  the  Constitution  be-  what  these  debates  show  that  our 
fathers  intended  to  make  it,  and  what,  too,  their  descendants,  this 
nation,  say  they  did  make  it,  and  agree  to  uphold,  then  we  affirm 
that  it  is  a  covenant  with  death,  an  agreement  with  hell,  and  ought 
to  be  immediately  annulled.  No  abolitionist  can  consistently  take 
office  under  it,  or  swear  to  support  it. 

"  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  our  fathers  failed  in  their  purpose,  and 
the  Constitution  is  all  pure,  and  untouched  by  slavery,  then  Union 
itself  is  impossible  without  guilt.  For  it  is  undeniable,  that  the 


120        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

fifty  years  passed  under  this  (anti-slavery)  Constitution  show  us 
the  slaves  trebling  in  numbers ;  slaveholders  monopolizing  the 
offices,  and  dictating  the  policy,  of  the  government ;  prostituting 
the  strength  and  influence  of  the  nation  to  the  support  of  slavery 
here  and  elsewhere ;  trampling  on  the  rights  of  the  free  States,  and 
making  the  courts  of  the  country  their  tools.  To  continue  this 
disastrous  alliance  longer  is  madness.  The  trial  of  fifty  years 
with  the  best  of  men  and  "the  best  of  constitutions,  on  this  suppo- 
sition, only  proves  that  it  is  impossible  for  free  and  slave  States 
to  unite  on  any  terms  without  all  becoming  partners  in  the  guilt, 
and  responsible  for  the  sin,  of  slavery.  We  dare  not  prolong  the 
argument ;  and  with  double  earnestness  we  repeat  our  demand  upon 
every  honest  man  to  join  in  the  outcry  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society, —  No  Union  with  slavery." 

i 

During  the  sessions  of  the  society  in  the  following 
years,  as  has  already  been  remarked,  this  was  the  prom- 
inent topic ;  and  some  of  Mr.  Phillips's  best  speeches 
were  made  to  advocate  the  destruction  of  the  American 
Church  and  Union  as  they  then  stood. 

The  discussion  touching  the  question  of  disunion  was, 
of  course,  deeply  offensive  to  the  public  mind ;  and  the 
speakers  were,  often  mobbed.  Capt.  Rynders,  after 
being  defeated  one  day,  turned  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  out  of  its  hall.  Next  year  no  owner 
of  a  hall  in  New- York  City  would  risk  his  building  for 
the  uses  of  the  society :  hence,  for  several  years  there- 
after, it  became  necessary  to  hold  the  anniversaries  in 
Rochester  and  Syracuse. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

EEA  OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT. 

James  K.  Polk  becomes  President  of  the  United  States.  —  The  An- 
nexation of  Texas.  —  Origin  of  the  "  Liberty  Party."  —The  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature  of  1846.  — The  "Free-Soil  Party."  —  Fleeing 
from  Slavery.  —  An  Outrage  in  Boston.  —  Election  of  Gen.  Taylor. 
—  Growth  of  the  Free-Soil  Party.  —  The  Fugitive-Slave  Bill  pro- 
posed in  Congress.  —  Debates.  —  Apostasy  of  Daniel  Webster.  — 
The  7th  of  March  Speech.  —  Indignation  Meetings.  —  The  Act 
signed  by  the  President.  —  Faneuil  Hall  speaks.  —  Charles  Sumner 
chosen  Senator. —  The  "Shadrach  Case."  — The  "Sims  Case."  — 
Public  Meetings.  —  Election  of  Franklin  Pierce.  —  The  Darkest 
Day  in  the  History  of  the  American  Republic. 

"  Because  you  have  your  prejudices,  shall  there  be  no  history  written?  Our  task 
is  unlike  that  of  some  recent  meetings,  —  history,  not  flattery." 

"  My  idea  of  American  civilization  is,  that  it  is  a  second  part,  a  repetition,  of  that 
same  sublime  confidence  in  the  public  conscience  and  the  public  thought  which  made 
the  groundwork  of  Grecian  democracy." 

""Who  can  adequately  tell  the  sacredness  and  the  value  of  free  speech?  Who  can 
fitly  describe  the  enormity  of  the  crime  of  its  violation?  Free  speech,  at  once  the 
instrument,  and  the  guaranty,  and  the  bright,  consummate  flower,  of  all  liberty."  — 
PHILLIPS. 

r  I  THE  election  of  James  K.  Polk  to  the  presidency 
-^-  in  1844,  and  the  annexation  of  Texas  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  largely  encouraged  and  strengthened  the 
pro-slavery  party,  both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South. 
Many  members  of  the  Whig  party  were  depressed  in 
spirits,  and  had  already  begun  to  doubt  the  expediency 

121 


124        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

upon  the  citizen-soldiers  at  once  to  enroll  themselves, 
and  to  be  in  readiness  when  the  exigencies  of  the  coun- 
try should  require  their  services.  This  course  of  the 
governor  greatly  displeased  the  abolitionists,  inasmuch 
as  the  war  was  a  direct  consequence  of  the  annexation 
of  Texas ;  of  which  act,  when  in  prospect  only,  he  had 
expressed  himself,  three  years  before,  in  the  following 
emphatic  terms :  — 

"  We  hold,"  says  the  solemn  "  Appeal  to  the  People 
of  the  Free  States,"  signed  by  him  and  nineteen  other 
members  of  Congress,  March  3,  1843,  —  "  we  hold  that 
the  objects  of  this  new  acquisition  are,  the  perpetuation 
of  slavery,  and  the  continued  ascendency  of  the  slave-power; 
.  .  .  that  there  is  no  Constitutional  power  delegated  to 
any  department  of  government  to  authorize  it ;  that  no 
Act  of  Congress  or  treaty  of  annexation  can  impose  the 
least  obligation  upon  the  several  States  of  this  Union 
to  submit  to  such  an  unwarrantable  act." 

Very  naturally,  the  conduct  of  the  governor,  directly 
opposed  to  his  previous,  profession  of  opinion,  merited 
and  received  a  severe  rebuke.  On  the  very  day  the 
proclamation  was  issued,  the  New-England  Convention 
began  its  annual  session  in  Faneuil  Hall.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  meeting  was  held  in  the  Melodeon, 
at  which  time  Mr.  Phillips  arose,  and  introduced  the 
following  resolution :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  at  the  bar  of  Liberty  and  Humanity  we  impeach 
George  N.  Briggs,  the  author  of  the  proclamation  dated  yesterday, 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  123 

arose  :  the  motion  was  vehemently  opposed  by  both 
Democrats  and  Whigs ;  a  compromise  was  tendered,  and 
the  committee  was  left  to  act  without  instructions.  In 
defending  his  motion,  Mr.  Wilson  said  that  "we  must 
destroy  slavery,  or  slavery  will  destroy  liberty."  For 
himself,  Mr.  Wilson  was  ready  to  act  with  any  man  or 
party  —  Whig,  Democrat,  abolitionist,  Christian,  or 
infidel  —  who  would  lend  support  to  the  cause  of  eman- 
cipation. 

As  the  result  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  war 
with  Mexico  was  declared  in  May,  1846.  This  aroused 
at  once  to  action  men  of  all  political  parties  at  the 
North,  and  changed  their  minds  as  to  their  duties 
towards  slavery.  In  September  a  Whig  convention 
assembled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  then  and  there  Charles 
Sumner  and  others  proclaimed  the  divorce  between 
conscience  and  cotton.  Mr.  Stephen  C.  Phillips  offered 
some  minority  resolutions.  Daniel  Webster  was  brought 
in  to  talk  them  down,  and  a  scene  ensued  which  will 
always  linger  in  the  memories  of  those  who  were  pres- 
ent. After  this  the  breach  in  the  Whig  party  grew 
wider  and  wider,  and  finally  led  to  the  formation  of 
the  Free-sril  party  in  1848. 

Towards  the  close  of  May,  1846,  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  through  the  War  Department,  trans- 
mitted a  civil  request  to  Gov.  Briggs  for  a  regiment  of 
infantry  from  Massachusetts.  His  Excellency  issued 
his  proclamation  on  the  26th  of  that  month,  calling 


124        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

upon  the  citizen-soldiers  at  once  to  enroll  themselves, 
and  to  be  in  readiness  when  the  exigencies  of  the  coun- 
try should  require  their  services.  This  course  of  the 
governor  greatly  displeased  the  abolitionists,  inasmuch 
as  the  war  was  a  direct  consequence  of  the  annexation 
of  Texas ;  of  which  act,  when  in  prospect  only,  he  had 
expressed  himself,  three  years  before,  in  the  following 
emphatic  terms :  — 

"  We  hold,"  says  the  solemn  "  Appeal  to  the  People 
of  the  Free  States,'*  signed  by  him  and  nineteen  other 
members  of  Congress,  March  3,  1843,  —  "  we  hold  that 
the  objects  of  this  new  acquisition  are,  the  perpetuation 
of  slavery,  and  the  continued  ascendency  of  the  slave-power; 
.  .  .  that  there  is  no  Constitutional  power  delegated  to 
any  department  of  government  to  authorize  it ;  that  no 
Act  of  Congress  or  treaty  of  annexation  can  impose  the 
least  obligation  upon  the  several  States  of  this  Union 
to  submit  to  such  an  unwarrantable  act." 

Very  naturally,  the  conduct  of  the  governor,  directly 
opposed  to  his  previous,  profession  of  opinion,  merited 
and  received  a  severe  rebuke.  On  the  very  day  the 
proclamation  was  issued,  the  New-England  Convention 
began  its  annual  session  in  Faneuil  Hall.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  meeting  was  held  in  the  Melodeon, 
at  which  time  Mr.  Phillips  arose,  and  introduced  the 
following  resolution :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  at  the  bar  of  Liberty  and  Humanity  we  impeach 
George  N.  Briggs,  the  author  of  the  proclamation  dated  yesterday, 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  125 

as  perjured  on  his  own  principles,  as  a  traitor  by  his  own  showing, 
as  one  before  whose  guilt  the  infamy  of  Arnold  and  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromisers  becomes  respectability  and  decency ;  since, 
under  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  he 
calls  on  the  Commonwealth  to  rally  to  a  war  which  is  waged  to 
defend  and  protect  an  act  (the  annexation  of  Texas)  which  he 
has  himself  so  often  declared  'a  violation  of  the  Constitution,' 
'equivalent  to  dissolution,'  a  triumph  of  slavery  and  despotism, 
one  to  which  it  was  the  basest  calumny  to  suppose  that  Massachu- 
setts would  ever  submit;  and  that  we  call  upon  the  people  to  forget 
him  as  emphatically  as  they  did  Mason  of  Boston,  and  Shaw  of 
Lanesborough,  for  their  treason  in  1820." 

This  resolution  created  an  intense  excitement,  not 
alone  in  the  convention,  but  also  in  the  community. 
In  the  evening  the  building  was  crowded  to  its  fullest 
capacity,  and  the  relations  of  the  Church  to  slavery 
was  the  topic  of  discussion.  On  the  following  day 
(Thursday)  the  convention  again  met  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
As  the  morning  papers  contained  Mr.  Phillips's  resolu- 
tion, an  immense  concourse  gathered  in  the  hall  for  the 
purpose  of  learning  what  next  was  to  occur.  The  Rev. 
William  H.  Channing  offered  a  series  of  resolutions 
denying  the  existence  of  any  lawful  government  of 
the  United  States,  of  any  Union,  of  any  obligation  of 
allegiance  or  countenance  to  either,  and  pledging  the 
abolitionists  to  give  no  aid  or  support  to  the  Mexican 
war,  and  to  exert  all  efforts  to  form  a  new  union  and 
a  new  constitution.  These  resolutions  were  sustained, 
amid  mingled  cheers  and  hisses,  by  Mr.  Channing, 


126        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Theodore  Parker,  Mr.  Remond,  and  others,  and  were 
enthusiastically  adopted. 

While  the  meeting  was  in  progress,  a  notice  was 
served  upon  the  officers  of  the  convention,  that  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Buildings,  Mr. 
Alderman  Jonathan  Preston,  had  directed  the  super- 
intendent not  to  allow  the  hall  to  be  used  by  the 
convention  for  an  evening  session.  Thus  the  doors 
were  closed  against  free  discussion.  A  statement  of 
the  facts,  signed  by  Jackson,  Phillips,  Garrison,  and 
Quincy,  was  published  in  the  morning  papers.  It  con- 
cluded as  follows :  — 

"  Whether  it  was  the  promptings  of  a  base  pro-slavery  spirit,  or 
a  cowardly  truckling  before  the  imaginary  possibility  of  a  contin- 
gent mob,  which  impelled  Mr.  Alderman  Preston  to  take  this 
extraordinary  and  reprehensible  course,  is  a  question  which  it  is 
important  only  to  himself  to  decide.  We  would  simply  ask  our 
fellow-citizens  to  consider  whether  he  would  have  dared  thus  to 
insult  any  political  party,  or  any  other  philanthropic  movement." 

It  may  be  a  forgotten  fact,  —  and  a  fact,  too,  which 
the  prudence  of  some  people  might  wish  to  relegate  to 
the  shades  of  oblivion,  but  which,  nevertheless,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  historian  to  record,  —  that  at  the  dinner  of 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company,  held  a 
little  later,  Gov.  Briggs  undertook  to  defend  his  course 
on  the  assumption  that  he  was  bound,  as  a  public  offi- 
cer, to  do  what  he  did,  and  that  it  was  for  doing  a 
duty  "  prescribed  by  the  laws,"  that  he  had  been  con- 


EEA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  127 

demned.  The  governor  evidently  lacked  intelligence 
to  discern  what  were  "  the  duties  made  imperative  by 
his  oath  of  office,"  and  to  distinguish  between  a  com- 
mand and  a  permission  to  do  a  certain  act.  President 
Polk  did  not  pretend,  the  secretary  of  war  expressly 
disclaimed,  that  there  was  any  obligation  on  the  part  of 
the  governors  of  the  States,  to  whom  invitations  to  this 
work  were  sent,  to  come  up  to  it. 

The  question  of  caste  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston 
came  prominently  before  the  school  committee  in  1846 
by  a  petition  for  the  abolition  of  the  colored  schools. 
The  committee  were  guilty  of  the  indiscretion  of  giving 
their  reasons  for  their  refusing  the  prayer  of  the  peti- 
tioners; and  the  city  solicitor  was  unwise  enough  to 
commit  himself,  in  a  written  opinion,  on  the  same  side. 
The  "  arguments  "  of  the  first  were  disposed  of  in  an 
able  minority  report,  written  by  Mr.  Edmund  Jackson, 
and  signed  by  him  and  Dr.  H.  I.  Bowditch.  The 
"opinion"  of  the  city  solicitor,  Mr.  P.  W.  Chandler, 
was  reviewed  at  length,  and  with  great  legal  acumen, 
by  Mr.  Phillips. 

The  report  of  Mr.  Jackson  and  the  review  of  Mr. 
Phillips  were  printed  and  bound  together,  and  exten- 
sively circulated.  A  vote  on  the  question  resulted  in 
fifty-nine  to  sixteen  for  and  against  the  continuance  of 
the  caste-schools. 

In  1855  the  desired  change  took  place,  and  was 
acknowledged  by  the  following  resolution,  offered  by 


128        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Mr.  Phillips  at  the  ensuing  meeting  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Anti-slavery  Society :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  society  rejoices  in  the  abolition  of  the  sepa- 
rate colored  schools  in  the  city  of  Boston  as  the  triumph  of  law 
and  justice  over  the  pride  of  caste  and  wealth,  and  recognizes  in 
it  the  marked  advance  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  State." 

Meanwhile  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  pro- 
spective acquisition  of  Mexican  territory,  had  increased 
the  price  of,  and  the  demand  for,  slaves.  The  bondmen 
were  filled  with  dread,  and  many  of  the  more  intelli- 
gent among  them  sought  liberty  in  flight.  For  a  time 
Eastern  Pennsylvania  seemed  to  be  the  destined  place 
of  refuge ;  arid  to  the  judicious  counsels  and  labors  of 
such  men  as  Thomas  Shipley,  Edward  M.  Davis,  Robert 
Purvis,  William  Still,  William  H.  Furness,  and  to  such 
noble  women  as  Esther  Moore,  Lucretia  Mott,  Sarah 
Pugh,  and  Mary  Grew,  all  of  that  State,  thousands  of 
these  lowly  ones  were  indebted  for  shelter,  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  a  hearty  God-speed. 

The  frequency  of  escapes  incensed  the  slave-masters, 
and  made  them  more  vigilant.  Numerous  instances  of 
kidnapping  occurred,  in  which  masters  of  vessels  en- 
gaged in  the  Southern  trade  bore  a  prominent  part. 

In  August,  1846,  a  striking  case  happened  in  Boston. 
The  brig  "  Ottoman,"  owned  by  John  H.  Pierson,  and 
commanded  by  Capt.  James  W.  Hannum,  sailed  from 
New  Orleans  for  Boston.  When  a  few  days  out  at 


ERA   OF  TEE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  129 

sea,  a  slave  was  found  secreted  in  the  vessel.  In  Sep- 
tember the  vessel  arrived  in  Boston  Harbor ;  and  the 
captain,  after  transferring  the  slave  on  a  pilot-boat  for 
safe-keeping,  went  into  the  city  to  arrange  with  the 
captain  of  the  bark  "  Niagara,"  which  was  soon  to  sail 
for  New  Orleans,  to  take  him  back.  The  slave  man- 
aged to  ^  escape  to  South-Boston  Point,  but  was  hotly 
pursued,  recaptured,  and  was  "  abducted  by  force  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  commonwealth,  and  borne  back 
to  slavery." 

This  proceeding  aroused  the  deepest  indignation ;  and 
a  crowded  meeting  was  held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  over  which 
John  Quincy  Adams  presided.  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe 
related  the  facts  in  the  case.  John  A.  Andrew  pre- 
sented a  series  of  resolutions,  and  these  were  supported 
by  eloquent  speakers.  Mr.  Sumner  characterized  the 
wrong  as  "  an  injury  and  insult  to  Massachusetts,  which 
should  arouse  the  people  to  a  determination  to  prevent 
.the  repetition  of  such  a  crime." 

Wendell  Phillips  attributed  the  outrage  upon  the 
laws  to  the  religious  and  social  institutions  of  the 
country.  The  resolutions,  he  thought,  did  not  go  far 
enough,  and  the  time  had  come  when  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  should  go  farther  than  simply  to  an- 
nounce that  they  would  sustain  the  laws.  He  would 
have  the  people  come  up  to  the  point,  and  say,  "  Law 
or  no  law,  Constitution  or  no  Constitution,  humanity 
shall  be  paramount.  I  would  send  a  voice  from  Fan- 


130        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

euil  Hall  that  shall  reach  every  hovel  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  say  to  the  slaves,  'Come  here,  and  find  an 
asylum  of  freedom  here,  where  no  talon  of  the  national 
eagle  shall  ever  snatch  you  away.' " 

Theodore  Parker  supported  Phillips  by  asserting,  — 

"  There  is  a  law  of  God,  written  on  the  heart,  that  cannot  be 
altered  or  revoked,  —  that  we  should  do  unto  others  as  we  would 
that  others  should  do  unto  us.  When  the  laws  of  Massachusetts 
or  the  laws  of  the  Union  conflict  writh  the  laws  of  God,  I  would 
keep  God's  law  in  preference,  though  the  heavens  should  fall. 
We  have  officers  who  tell  us  that  they  are  sworn  to  keep  the  laws 
of  the  State  and  of  the  United  States,  and  we  are  born  citizens, 
born  to  obey  the  laws  ;  but  every  bone  of  my  body,  and  every  drop 
of  blood  in  my  system,  swears  to  me  that  I  am  amenable  to,  and 
must  obey,  the  laws  of  God." 

What  was  the  result  ?  Capt.  Hannum  boasted  that 
he  was  justified  in  his  course  by  the  approval  of  his 
employer;  Mr.  Pierson  boasted  that  he  had  the  ap- 
proval of  the  merchants  of  Boston ;  the  merchants  of 
Boston  never  allowed  their  opinion  in  the  matter  to  go 
upon  the  records,  —  a  good  fortune  for  their  posterity. 

In  the  spring  of  1847  Mr.  Phillips  collected  in  a  pam- 
phlet the  papers  which  he  had  prepared  for  "  The  Anti- 
slavery  Standard"  (published  in  New- York  City)  in 
reply  to  the  work  of  Mr.  Lysander  Spooner  upon  the 
unconstitutionality  of  .slavery.  The  ingenious  sophis- 
try of  Mr.  Spooner  was  of  no  consequence,  excepting 
in  so  far  as  it  was  made  the  means  of  blinding  the  eyes 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.          131 

of  persons  unaccustomed  to  the  construction  of  laws, 
and  of  reconciling  them  to  give  their  support  to  the 
chief  political  bulwark  of  slavery,  under  the  delusive 
idea  that  it  might  be  made  an  instrument  of  its  de- 
struction. It  is  no  easy  task  to  prove  an  axiom,  and 
that  which  Mr.  Phillips  had  undertaken  was  little  less 
than  this.  It  was  like  endeavoring  to  refute  an  antago- 
nist who  should  maintain  that  there  is  no  regal  or 
aristocratic  element  in  the  British  Constitution.  Mr. 
Phillips,  however,  performed  his  task  with  great  acute- 
ness,  learning,  and  wit.  He  published  the  edition  of 
five  thousand  copies  at  his  own  expense,  and  presented 
it  to  the  American  and  the  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery 
Societies.  The  demand  for  the  work  in  Ohio  and  New 
York,  the  chief  fields  of  the  late  Liberty  party,  nearly 
exhausted  the  edition. 

In  1848  the  real  anti-slavery  fight  began.  The 
smouldering  embers  which  the  seeming  quiet  but  deep 
planning  of  the  preceding  year  had  tended  to  keep 
alive,  now  burst  into  a  flame.  The  Whig  party  had 
nominated  Zachary  Taylor,  a  slaveholder,  for  the 
presidency.  Millard  Fillmore  was  their  choice  for  the 
Vice-Presidency.  This  action  convinced  the  conscience 
Whigs  that  they  could  no  longer  trust  the  policy  of 
the  party ;  and  they  determined  to  break  up  the  party, 
which  had  shown  itself  incompetent  to  deal  with  the 
living  question  of  the  day.  In  June  a  convention  of 
the  Free-soil  Democrats  met  at  Utica,  N.Y.,  and  nomi- 


132        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

nated  Martin  Van  Buren  as  the  presidential  candidate 
of  a  new  party,  to  represent  the  doctrine  of  "  undying 
hostility  to  the  farther  extension  of  slavery."  The 
movement  spread,  and  Free-soil  meetings  were  held  in 
different  States.  The  contest,  which  followed  in  a  spir- 
ited manner,  ended  in  the  election  of  the  candidates 
of  the  Whig  party;  and  on  the  4th  of  March,  1849, 
Gen.  Taylor  was  inducted  into  office. 

Gen.  Taylor's  election  seems  to  have  done  no  great 
harm,  and  unconsciously  to  have  been  the  means  of 
great  good ;  since  it  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Free- 
soil  party,  of  which  the  leading  policy  was  free  soil, 
free  speech,  free  men,  and  opposition  to  the  extension  of 
slavery  and  of  the  slaveholding  power.  The  Liberty 
party,  which  was  an  abolition-political  party,  was 
merged  into  the  Free-soil  party.  This  party,  which 
believed  in  voting  as  well  as  talking  against  slavery 
(and  in  this  respect  unlike  the  Garrisonians),  began  in 
1839,  by  casting  three  hundred  and  seven  votes:  it 
made  a  gradual  increase  until  it  became  merged  in  the 
Free-soil  party  and  the  Republican  party.  Finally  its 
ideas  got  control  of  the  country,  and  effected  emanci- 
pation in  1863. 

At  the  annual  meeting,  in  January,  1849,  of  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Society,  Mr.  Phillips  took 
occasion  to  review  some  of  the  notable  events  in  the 
history  of  the  anti-slavery  cause  in  Boston,  from  the 
time  when  Harrison  Gray  Otis  sneeringly  said  that 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.          133 

he  heard  that  the  abolitionists,  in  their  madness,  put 
the  Bible  above  the  statute-book.  He  alluded  to  the 
time  when  Peleg  Sprague  stood  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and 
tried  to  awaken  sympathy  with  the  South  by  pointing 
up  to  the  portrait  of  Washington,  and  calling  him 
"  that  slaveholder : "  he  did  not  omit  to  call  to  mind 
Richard  Fletcher's  base  attempts  to  propitiate  the 
South,  nor  the  encouragement  given  to  the  murderers 
of  Lovejoy,  at  Alton,  by  "that  infamous  attorney- 
general,  James  Trecothick  Austin."  He  proceeded  to 
show  what  had  been  the  position  and  attitude  of  the 
churches  in  Boston  in  the  same  period.  "  Where,"  he 
asked,  "was  Hubbard  Winslow?  Teaching  that  a 
minister's  rule  of  duty,  as  to  what  he  should  teach  and 
preach,  is  'what  the  brotherhood  will  allow  and  pro- 
tect.' Where  is  the  pulpit  of  the  Old  South?  Sus- 
taining slavery  as  a  Bible  institution.  Where  is  Park- 
street  Church  ?  Refusing  to  receive  within  its  walls, 
for  funeral  service,  the  body  of  the  only  martyr  which 
the  Orthodox  Congregationalists  of  New  England  have 
had,  Charles  T.  Torrey,  and  of  whom  they  were  not 
worthy.  Where  is  Essex-street  Church?  Teaching 
that  there  are  occasions  when  the  Golden  Rule  is  to 
be  set  aside.  And  where  is  Federal-street  Church? 
Teaching  that  silence  is  the  mission  of  the  North  with 
respect  to  slavery,  and  closing  its  doors  to  the  funeral 
eulogy  of  FOLLEK,  the  bosom-friend  of  the  only  man 
who  will  make  Federal-street  pulpit  to  be  remembered, 


134        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

— WILLIAM  ELLEEY  CHANNING.  And  I  might  ask," 
he  said,  "  where  are  the  New  South  and  Brattle  Street, 
—  but  they  are  not." 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Anti-slavery 
Society,  held  in  May,  1849,  was  one  of  the  most  notable 
in  the  history  of  that  organization.  It  was  held  in  the 
Tabernacle,  io.  New  York.  Mr.  Edmund  Quincy  pro- 
posed a  series  of  resolutions,  of  which  the  three  follow- 
ing were  the  concluding  ones :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  that  which  is  giving  strength,  extension,  and 
perpetuity  to  slavery,  —  to  wit,  the  UNION,  —  on  being  overthrown 
by  a  peaceful  withdrawal  from  it  by  the  non-slaveholding  States, 
for  conscience'  sake  and  for  self-preservation,  must  necessarily 
weaken  limits,  and  speedily  extirpate  slavery  from  the  American 
soil;  therefore, 

"  Resolved,  That  the  motto  of  every  Christian  and  every  patriot 
should  be, '  No  union  with  slaveholders,  either  religiously  or  politically.1 

"  Resolved,  That  this  is  not  a  question  of  expediency  on  which 
action  may  be  innocently  deferred  '  till  a  more  convenient  season,' 
but  one  of  absolute  morality,  —  of  obedience  to  God,  and  fidelity 
to  mankind,  — to  be  met,  and  carried  out  to  the  letter." 

These  resolutions,  and  portions  of  the  impressive 
speech  in  support  of  them,  made  by  Mr.  Phillips,  were 
quoted  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  were  copied  exten- 
sively into  the  Southern  papers.  The  press  of  the 
country  generally  gave  circulation  to  these  "  incendiary 
ideas"  by  the  condemnation  they  were  swift  to  heap 
upon  them. 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  135 

On  the  4th  of  January,  1850,  Mr.  Mason  of  Vir- 
ginia introduced  into  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
a  bill  to  carry  out  more  effectually  the  provision  of  the 
Constitution  in  relation  to  fugitives  from  service  or 
labor,  and  asked  thereon  a  speedy  report  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Judiciary.  This  was  the  famous  Fugitive- 
slave  Act,  which  was  subsequently  adopted,  and  which 
excited  so  much  feeling  in  the  free  States.  In  support 
of  this  Act,  Henry  Clay  and  John  C.  Calhoun  spoke 
at  length ;  and  from  their  words  the  friends  of  liberty 
received  nothing  to  encourage,  but  every  thing  to 
alarm. 

All  eyes  were  then  turned  toward  Mr.  Webster,  the 
idolized  son,  by  adoption,  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts.  The  greatest  statesman  and  orator 
that  New  England  had  produced,  nurtured  in  the  spirit 
of  the  immortal  Declaration  of  '76,  and  in  the  avowed 
purpose  of  the  Constitution  to  "  establish  justice,"  had 
now  an  opportunity  to  crown  his  venerable  head  with 
the  laurels  of  enviable  and  undying  renown.  Upon 
his  words  the  fate  of  a  nation  seemed  to  hang.  To 
redeem  this  nation  from  the  thraldom  of  human  bond- 
age, by  eloquent  speech  and  vote  to  oppose  slavery 
extension  and  domination,  —  all  this  he  promised  to  do. 

The  7th  of  March  came.  The  Senate  Chamber  was 
thronged  to  overflowing  with  eager  and  excited  audit- 
ors. In  words  of  forceful  eloquence,  and  with  a  dig- 
nity and  solemnity  of  manner  which  none  better  than 


136        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

he  understood  and  could  command,  Mr.  Webster  began 
his  address.  "  I  speak  to-day,"  he  said,  "  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  Union.  Hear  me,  for  my  cause." 

Having  thus  challenged  the  attention  of  his  coun- 
trymen, Mr.  Webster  passed  rapidly  over  the  events 
that  had  transpired  from  the  declaration  of  war  against 
Mexico  to  the  unanimous  adoption  by  California  of  its 
constitution  excluding  slavery.  This  he  regarded  as 
the  main  cause  of  the  existing  agitation.  He  then 
went  into  an  historical  review  of  slavery,  of  the  differ- 
ences of  opinion  which  had  arisen  in  the  North  and 
South  on  account  of  its  existence,  and  at  length  an- 
nounced that  he  should  support  the  Fugitive-slave  Act 
"  with  all  its  provisions,  to  its  fullest  extent." 

Mr.  Webster's  words  weighed  heavily  on  the  friends 
of  truth,  justice,  and  freedom.  Thousands  who  had 
loved,  honored,  and  followed  him  as  a  trusted  leader, 
now  felt  themselves  paralyzed  with  grief  and  disap- 
pointment. But  this  only  for  a  brief  season  ;  for,  with 
indignation  in  their  hearts,  they  soon  left  him  in  the 
hands  of  his  new-found  but  not  steadfast  friends,  the 
slaveholding  statesmen,  who  now  looked  upon  Mr. 
Webster  as  they  did  upon  their  slaves,  —  as  useful  but 
degraded. 

The  action  of  Mr.  Webster  was  very  strongly  con- 
demned by  a  public  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  the 
25th  of  March,  over  which  Samuel  E.  Sewall  presided. 
Theodore  Parker  introduced  a  series  of  resolutions,  and 


EEA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  137 

supported  them  with  an  argument  of  great  thorough- 
ness and  force.  Mr.  Phillips  followed  with  a  critical 
examination  of  Mr.  Webster's  unfortunate  speech. 

The  saddest  and  most  astounding  evidence  of  the  de- 
moralization of  Northern  citizens  in  regard  to  slavery, 
and  of  Mr.  Webster's  depraving  influence  upon  them, 
is  given  in  the  following  letter  addressed  to  him  soon 
after  the  delivery  of  his  speech  on  the  7th  of  March, 
signed  by  eight  hundred  of  the  prominent  citizens  of 
Massachusetts.  It  was  published  in  "The  Boston 
Daily  Advertiser  "  of  April  2,  1850. 

"To  THE  HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  Sir,  —  Impressed  with  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the 
service  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  which  you  have  ren- 
dered by  your  recent  speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  we  desire  to  express  to  you  our  deep  obliga- 
tion for  what  this  speech  has  done,  and  is  doing,  to  enlighten  the 
public  mind,  and  to  bring  the  present  crisis  in  our  national  affairs 
to  a  fortunate  and  peaceful  termination.  As  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  we  wish  to  thank  you  for  recalling  us  to  our  duties 
under  the  Constitution,  and  for  the  broad,  national,  and  patriotic 
views  which  you  have  sent  with  the  weight  of  your  great  authority, 
and  with  the  power  of  your  unanswerable  reasoning,  into  every 
corner  of  the  Union. 

"It  is,  permit  us  to  say,  sir,  no  common  good  which  you  have 
thus  done  for  the  country.  In  a  time  of  almost  unprecedented 
excitement,  when  the  minds  of  men  have  been  bewildered  by  an 
apparent  conflict  of  duties,  and  when  multitudes  have  been  unable 
to  find  solid  ground  on  which  to  rest  with  security  and  peace,  you 


138        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


have  pointed  out  to  a  whole  people  the  path  of  duty,  have  con- 
vinced the  understanding,  and  touched  the  conscience,  of  a  nation. 
You  have  met  this  great  exigency  as  a  patriot  and  a  statesman ; 
and,  although  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try owe  to  you  was  large  before,  you  have  increased  it  by  a 
peculiar  service,  which  is  felt  throughout  the  land. 

"  We  desire,  therefore,  to  express  to  you  our  entire  concurrence 
in  the  sentiments  of  your  speech,  and  our  heartfelt  thanks  for  the 
inestimable  aid  it  has  afforded  towards  the  preservation  and  per- 
petuation of  the  Union.  For  this  purpose,  we  respectfully  present 
to  you  this,  our  address  of  thanks  and  congratulation,  in  reference 
to  this  most  interesting  and  important  occasion  in  your  public  life. 

"  We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  the  highest  respect, 
"  Your  obedient  servants, 

«T.  H.  PERKINS,  J.  W.  PAGE, 

CHARLES  C.  PARSONS,    THOMAS  C.  AMORY, 


THOMAS  B.  WALES, 
CALEB  LORING, 
WM.  APPLETON, 
JAMES  SAVAGE, 
CHARLES  P.  CURTIS, 
CHARLES  JACKSON, 
GEORGE  TICKNOR, 
BENJ.  R.  CURTIS, 
RUFUS  CHOATE, 
JOSIAH  BRADLEE, 
EDWARD  G.  LORING, 
THOMAS  B.  CURTIS, 
FRANCIS  J.  OLIVER, 
J.  A.  LOWELL, 


BENJ.  LORING, 
GILES  LODGE, 
WM.  P.  MASON, 
WM.  STURGIS, 
W.  H.  PRESCOTT, 
SAM'L  T.  ARMSTRONG, 
SAMUEL  A.  ELIOT, 
JAMES  JACKSON, 
MOSES  STUART, 
LEONARD  WOODS, 
RALPH  EMERSON, 
JARED  SPARKS, 
C.  C.  FELTON, 


and  over  seven  hundred  others.' 


EEA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.          139 

On  the  9th  of  July  President  Taylor  died,  just  in 
time  to  defeat  his  destiny,  and  to  give  his  successor, 
Millard  Fillmore,  an  opportunity  to  sign  the  Fugitive- 
slave  Act,  and  thus  forever  to  make  his  name  odious 
in  the  annals  of  his  country.  The  bill  was  signed  on 
the  18th  of  September,  1850. 

The  passage  of  this  Act  was  the  signal  for  a  general 
commotion  throughout  the  land.  On  the  14th  of  Octo- 
ber a  large  and  highly  important  meeting  was  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall  "for  the  denunciation  of  the  law,  and 
the  expression  of  sympathy  and  co-operation  with  the 
fugitive."  Charles  Francis  Adams  presided,  and  made 
an  eloquent  address.  Other  speakers  were  Frederick 
Douglass,  Theodore  Parker,  and  Wendell  Phillips. 
Instant  repeal  of  the  obnoxious  statute  was  demanded, 
and  a  vigilance  committee  of  fifty  was  appointed  to 
take  "  all  needful  measures  to  protect  the  colored  peo- 
ple from  the  new  and  imminent  dangers  to  which  they 
were  exposed." 

The  result  of  Mr.  Webster's  retreat  into  the  ethics 
of  barbarism  was  the  defeat  of  the  great  Whig  party  at 
the  next  election,  and,  as  he  had  become  Mr.  Fillmore's 
secretary  of  state,  the  filling  of  his  place  in  the  Senate 
with  Robert  Rantoul,  jun.,  for  the  short  term,  and  for 
the  long  term,  commencing  March  4,  1851,  with  a  sort 
of  twin-brother  of  Wendell  Phillips,  named  Charles 
Sumner. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  how  the  Fugitive-slave  Act 


140        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

worked  in  the  North.  In  Boston,  on  the  15th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1851,  Shadrach,  a  colored  waiter  at  the  Cornhill 
Coffee-house,  was  arrested  under  a  warrant  issued  by 
George  T.  Curtis,  United  States  commissioner,  on  the 
complaint  of  one  John  de  Bree  of  Norfolk,  Va.,  a  purser 
in  the  navy.  The  hearing  was  postponed  until  the 
18th,  and  the  prisoner  was  remanded  to  the  custody  of 
the  deputy  marshal.  While  his  counsel  were  confer- 
ring with  him,  a  number  of  colored  men  rushed  in, 
seized  Shadrach,  carried  him  away  in  triumph,  and 
finally  sent  him  in  safety  to  Canada.  The  excitement 
was  intense.  Tidings  were  sent  to  Washington,  and 
the  President  immediately  issued  a  proclamation  call- 
ing upon  all  citizens  to  assist  in  capturing  the  fugi- 
tive. 

On  the  3d  of  April  occurred  another  case.  Thomas 
Sims,  a  fugitive  slave,  was  arrested  in  Boston ;  and,  after 
a  hurried  and  summary  examination  before  Commis- 
sioner Curtis,  he  was  given  up  to  his  pursuers.  The 
poor  slave-youth  begged  one  favor  of  his  counsel. 
"  Give  me  a  knife,"  said  he ;  "  and,  when  the  commis- 
sioner declares  me  a  slave,  I  will  stab  myself  to  the 
heart,  and  die  before  his  eyes."  About  midnight  the 
mayor  of  Boston,  attended  by  his  marshal  and  two  or 
three  hundred  policemen,  all  heavily  armed,  placed  Sims 
on  board  the  "  Acorn  "  (owned  by  John  H.  Pierson), 
and  sent  him  again  into  bondage.  "And  this,"  ex- 
claimed the  negro,  "  is  Massachusetts  liberty ! "  He 


ERA   OF  THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  ACT.  141 

uttered  these  significant  words  on  the  memorable  19th 
of  April.1 

On  the  day  following  the  arrest,  a  great  public  meet- 
ing was  held  on  Boston  Common,  which  was  addressed 
by  Mr.  Phillips.  On  the  8th  a  rousing  convention  was 
held  at  Tremont  Temple  of  all  persons  opposed  to  the 
Fugitive-slave  Act,  and  the  deepest  feeling  was  mani- 
fested. On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  another  and 
a  distinct  meeting  was  held  in  the  same  place,  which 
was  addressed  by  Phillips,  William  Henry  Channing, 
and  others.  On  the  12th,  the  day  of  the  rendition  of 
Sims,  a  meeting  was  held  in  Washington  Hall;  and 
Phillips,  Garrison,  and  Quincy  were  among  the  speakers. 

After  crossing  the  Rubicon,  in  1850,  the  recreant 
statesman  of  Massachusetts  found  that  he  could  not 
retrace  his  steps.  With  a  chagrin  which  at  length 
carried  him  into  his  grave,  and  yet  with  a  bravado 
which  he  must  have  borrowed  from  his  slaveholding 
friends,  he,  in  1852,  was  led,  not  only  to  defend  the 
compromise  measures,  but  even  to  defame  the  anti- 
slavery  men  and  their  efforts.  He  also  aspired  to  the 
presidency,  as  a  reward  for  his  conduct. 

1  Sims  was  severely  whipped  after  arriving  at  Savannah,  and  for 
two  months  was  kept  closely  confined  in  a  cell.  He  was  then  sent  to 
a  slave-pen  at  Charleston,  and  thence  to  a  slave-pen  at  New  Orleans. 
He  was  purchased  by  a  brick-mason,  and  taken  to  Yicksburg,  whence, 
in  1863,  he  escaped  to  the  besieging-army  of  Gen.  Grant,  who  gave  him 
transportation  to  the  North.  I  do  not  know  whether,  at  the  present 
writing,  he  is  living  or  dead. 


142        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

In  the  election  of  that  year,  Franklin  Pierce  of  New 
Hampshire,  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party,  was 
chosen  President.  It  was  a  victory  for  the  pro-slavery 
party.  All  but  four  States  recorded  their  votes  in  its 
favor.  It  was  a  victory  which  implied  the  indorsement 
of  the  compromise  measures,  and,  further,  that  these 
measures  should  be  regarded  as  final.  To  all  this,  not- 
withstanding the  anti-slavery  agitations  which  had  been 
going  on  for  nearly  half  a  century,  only  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand,  out  of  more  than  three  millions, 
refused  to  give  their  sanction.  No  darker  day,  not  even 
in  the  most  critical  period  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion, 
has  ever  marked  the  history  of  the  American  republic. 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  YEAR   OF   MOBS   AND   CONVENTIONS. 

Friends  of  Temperance  assemble  in  New  York,  1853.— Women  ex- 
cluded from  the  Convention.  —  A  Busy  Autumn.  —  Comments  of 
"The  Tribune." — Rev.  Antoinette  L.  Brown.  —  Her  Experience 
at  the  Temperance  Convention.  —  Exclusion  of  Miss  Brown  and 
Mr.  Phillips.  —  The  Woman's  Rights  Convention.— Riotous  Dis- 
turbances. —  Madame  Anneke.  — Phillips' s  Bitter  Invective.  —  The 
Convention  forced  to  adjourn  sine  die. 

11  My  idea  of  American  nationality  makes  it  the  last  best  growth  of  the  thought- 
ful  mind  of  the  century,  treading  under  foot  sex  and  race,  caste  and  condition,  and 
collecting  on  the  broad  bosom  of  what  deserves  the  name  of  an  empire,  under  the 
shelter  of  noble,  just,  and  equal  laws,  all  races,  all  customs,  all  religions,  all  lan- 
guages, all  literature,  and  all  ideas." 

"I  welcome  woman  to  the  platform  of  the  world's  teachers;  and  I  look  upon  the 
world,  in  a  very  important  sense,  as  one  great  school."  —  PHILLIPS. 

the  12th  of  May,  1853,  the  friends  of  temperance 
assembled  in  New- York  City,  to  make  arrange- 
ments for  a  world's  temperance  convention.  The  meet- 
ing was  held  in  Dr.  Spring's  Old  Brick  Church,  on 
Franklin  Square,  where  "The  New-York  Times"  build- 
ing now  stands.  It  was  organized  by  nominating  the 
Hon.  A.  C.  Barstow  of  Rhode  Island  chairman.  The 
meeting  opened  with  prayer,  "asking  God's  blessing 
on  the  proceedings."  A  motion  was  then  made,  that 
all  "  gentlemen  "  present  be  admitted  as  delegates.  Dr. 

143 


144        LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Trail  of  New  York  moved  an  amendment,  that  the 
word  "  ladies  "  be  inserted,  as  there  were  delegates  pres- 
ent from  the  Woman's  State  Temperance  Society.  The 
motion  was  carried. 

A  business  committee  of  one  from  each  State  was  then 
appointed.  A  motion  was  made,  that  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
secretary  of  the  Woman's  State  Temperance  Society,  be 
added  to  the  business  committee ;  and,  after  a  hot  de- 
bate, it  was  ruled  out  of  order.  Next  Thomas  Went- 
worth  Higginson  requested  that  he  be  excused  from 
serving  on  the  committee,  and  that  his  place  be  filled 
by  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone.  The  confusion  was  increased.  A 
committee  of  credentials  was  appointed,  to  decide  who 
were  members  of  the  convention.  They  reported,  that, 
in  their  opinion,  the  call  for  the  meeting  was  not  in- 
tended to  include  female  delegates,  and  that  the  cre- 
dentials of  the  ladies  should  be  rejected.  The  report 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  thirty-four  to  thirty-two,  ten 
of  those  voting  being  women. 

The  opening  days-of  the  autumn  of  this  year  were  days 
of  intense  excitement  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
great  World's  Fair  was  in  progress  ;  also  an  anti-slavery, 
a  woman's  rights,  and  two  temperance,  conventions.  On 
the  anti-slavery  platform  William  Henry  Channing, 
Wendell  Phillips,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  other 
eloquent  speakers,  were  pleading  for  the  black  man's 
freedom ;  on  the  woman's  rights  platform  these  same 
men  were  asserting  the  equality  of  their  mothers,  wives, 


A    YEAH   OF  MOBS  AND   CONVENTIONS.        145 

and  daughters;  and  on  the  temperance  platform  they 
were  inculcating  noble  lessons  for  both  white  and 
black. 

The  temperance  convention,  from  which,  of  course, 
by  a  previous  ruling,  women  were  excluded,  was  in 
session  in  Metropolitan  Hall.  Truthfully  character- 
ized, it  was  no  other  than  an  organized  mob,  under  theb 
complete  control  of  the  clergy :  — 

In  "  The  New- York  Tribune,"  under  date  of  Sept.  T, 
1853,  Horace  Greeley  thus  summed  up  the  proceedings 
of  the  session :  — 

"  This  convention  has  completed  three  of  its  four  business  ses- 
sions, and  the  results  may  be  summed  up  as  follows  :  — 

"  First  day,  crowding  a  woman  off  the  platform. 

"  Second  day,  gagging  her. 

"Third  day,  voting  that  she  shall  stay  gagged.  Having  thus 
disposed  of  the  main  question,  we  presume  the  incidentals  will  be 
finished  this  morning." 

It  was  Antoinette  L.  Brown  (since  Rev.  Antoinette 
Brown  Blackwell)  whom  the  convention  crowded  off 
the  platform.  How  came  she  there,  is  a  question  which 
must  be  answered. 

On  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the  World's  Temperance 
Convention,  the  Woman's  Rights  Convention  was  also 
in  session.  Miss  Brown  and  Wendell  Phillips  sat  at 
the  latter,  reconsidering  the  matter  of  the  rejection  of 
women.  Miss  Brown  expressed  the  opinion,  that  as 
the  Brick-chapel  meeting  was  merely  an  informal,  pre- 


146        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

liminary  meeting,  and  its  decisions  of  no  importance 
or  authority  upon  the  convention  proper,  perhaps,  after 
all,  women  would  be  admitted  if  proper  application 
were  made. 

"Go,  by  all  means,"  said  Phillips:  "if  they  receive 
you,  you  have  only  to  thank  them  for  rebuking  the 
action  of  the  Brick-chapel  meeting.  Then  we  will  with- 
draw, and  come  back  to  our  own  meeting.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  do  not  receive  you,  we  will  quietly 
and  without  protest  withdraw,  and,  in  that  case,  not 
be  gone  half  an  hour." 

Miss  Brown,  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Severance,  and  Mr. 
Phillips  then  wended  their  way  to  Metropolitan  Hall. 

On  arriving  at  the  hall,  Miss  Brown  presented  her 
credentials  to  the  secretary,  and  went  down  from  the 
platform.  After  a  little  time  it  was  decided  that  the 
call  admitted  all  delegates,  and,  thinking  that  this 
decision  settled  her  case,  Miss  Brown  again  went  upon 
the  platform.  In  the  mean  time  a  permanent  organi- 
zation was  effected.  Miss  Brown  arose,  and  inquired  of 
the  president,  Neal  Dow,  if  she  were  rightly  a  member 
of  the  convention.  He  replied,  "Yes,  if  you  have 
credentials  from  any  abstinence  societies."  She  stated 
that  she  had,  and  then  attempted  to  thank  him ;  but  the 
convention  would  not  receive  any  expression  of  thanks. 
She  took  her  seat,  and  awaited  a  better  opportunity. 

The  first  day's  session  came  to  an  end.  On  going 
out  of  the  convention,  Mr.  Phillips  stated  to  persons 


A   YEAR   OF  MOBS  AND  CONVENTIONS.        147 

with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  that  a  woman  delegate 
had  been  received  by  the  president,  and  that  she  had 
been  insulted,  and  nobody  had  risen  to  sustain  her.  He 
said  to  Miss  Brown,  "  I  shall  not  go  to-morrow,  but  do 
you  go.  I  can  do  nothing  for  you,  because  I  am  not  a 
delegate." 

That  evening  a  few  earnest  friends  in  New  York  met 
together,  organized  a  society,  and  appointed  just  three 
delegates  to  that  temperance  convention.  Those  three 
persons  were  Wendell  Phillips,  Mr.  Cleveland,  —  one 
of  the  editors  of  "The  Tribune,"  —  and  Mr.  Gibbon, 
son-in-law  of  the  late  Isaac  T.  Hopper  of  New  York. 

The  next  morning  Miss  Brown  and  the  new  delegates 
went  to  the  hall.  Mr.  Phillips  presented  his  credentials. 
During  the  discussion  Mr.  Phillips  took  part,  and  per- 
sisted in  holding  the  convention  to  parliamentary  rules. 
"When  the  preliminary  business  was  over,  and  various 
resolutions  were  being  brought  forward,  Miss  Brown 
arose,  and  the  president  gave  her  the  floor.  She  was 
invited  upon  the  stand;  but,  once  there,  she  was  not 
allowed  to  speak.  For  the  space  of  three  hours  she 
endeavored  to  be  heard.  Finally  some  one  insisted 
that  there  might  be  persons  voting  in  the  house  who 
were  not  delegates;  and  it  was  decided  that  the  hall 
should  be  cleared  by  the  police,  and  that  those  who 
were  delegates  might  come  in,  one  by  one,  and  resume 
their  seats. 

There  were  printed  lists  of  the  delegates  of  the  con- 


148        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

vention ;  but  there  were  several  new  delegates,  whose 
names  were  not  on  the  lists.  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  col- 
leagues were  among  the  latter.  He  went  to  the  presi- 
dent, and  said,  "  I  rely  upon  you  to  be  admitted  to  the 
hall,  for  we  know  that  our  nanres  are  not  yet  on  the 
list."  The  president  assented. 

The  delegates  were  re-adrnitted  by  the  roll-call :  it  is 
needless  to  add  that  the  two  delegates  Miss  Brown  and 
Wendell  Phillips  were  not  called. 

We  turn  now  to  the  proceedings,  so  far  as  they  fall 
within  our  present  scope,  of  the  Woman's  Rights  Con- 
vention, which  was  held  in  the  Broadway  Tabernacle 
on  the  6th  and  7th  of  September,  1853.  The  fact  that 
the  Anti-slavery  Society  held  a  meeting  on  Sunday 
morning,  and  Antoinette  Brown  preached  to  five  thou- 
sand people  the  same  evening,  called  out  the  denuncia- 
tions of  the  religious  press  which  intensified  the  mob 
spirit,  culminating  at  last  in  the  Woman's  Rights  Con- 
vention. 

The  Tabernacle,  holding  three  thousand  persons,  was 
packed  long  before  the  hour  of  opening.  Mr.  Chan- 
ning  made  an  opening  prayer ;  and  the  president,  Mrs. 
Mott,  made  a  few  appropriate  remarks.  Then  the 
business  went  on.  Among  the  speakers  of  the  first 
day  were  Mr.  Garrison,  Charles  C.  Burleigh,  Dr.  Chan- 
ning,  and  Antoinette  Brown. 

The  next  morning  "The  Tribune"  stated  as  fol- 
lows :  — 


A    YEAR   OF  MOBS  AND   CONVENTIONS.        149 

"  The  Woman's  Rights  Convention  was  somewhat  disturbed  last 
evening  by  persons  whose  ideas  of  the  rights  of  free  speech  are 
these :  two  thousand  people  assemble  to  hear  a  given  public  ques- 
tion discussed,  under  distinct  announcement  that  certain  persons, 
whose  general  views  are  well  known,  are  to  speak  throughout  the 
evening.  At  least  nineteen-twentieths  come  to  hear  those  an- 
nounced speakers,  and  will  be  bitterly  disappointed  if  the  oppor- 
tunity be  not  afforded  them.  But  one-twentieth  have  bought 
tickets,  and  taken  seats  on  purpose  to  prevent  the  hearing  of  those 
speakers,  by  hissing,  yelling,  and  stamping,  and  all  manner  of 
unseemly  interruptions." 

The  second  day's  proceedings  were  characterized  by 
blackguardism,  defamation,  rowdyism,  and  profanity. 
The  convention  seemed  entirely  under  the  control  of 
the  mob.  As  it  was  inconsistent  with  Mrs.  Mott's 
Quaker  principles  to  call  upon  the  police,  she  vacated 
the  chair  after  inviting  Ernestine  L.  Rose  to  take  her 
place.  The  president  then  introduced  a  German  lady, 
Madame  Mathilde  Francesea  AnnekS,  editor  of  a  liberal 
woman's  rights  newspaper  which  had  been  suppressed 
in  Germany. 

Madame  Anneke  attempted  to  speak,  but  her  voice 
was  drowned  by  the  tumultuous  yells  of  the  ruffianly 
element  in  the  audience.  Quick  as  a  flash,  Mr.  Phil- 
lips sprang  upon  the  platform.  He  said,  — 

"  Allow  me  to  say  one  word,  purely  as  a  matter  of 
the  self-respect  which  you  owe  to  yourselves.  We  are 
citizens  of  a  great  country,  which,  from  Maine  to  Geor- 
gia, has  extended  a  welcome  to  Kossuth;  and  this 


150        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

New-York  audience  is  now  looking  upon  a  noble 
woman  who  stood  by  his  side  in  the  battle-fields  of 
Hungary,  —  one  who  has  faced  the  cannon  of  Francis 
Joseph  of  Austria,  for  the  rights  of  the  people.  Is 
this  the  welcome  you  give  her  to  the  shores  of  repub- 
lican America  ?  A  woman  who  has  proved  her  gallan- 
try, and  attachment  to  principles,  wishes  to  say  five 
words  to  you  of  the  feelings  with  which  she  is  im- 
pressed toward  this  cause.  I  know,  fellow-citizens, 
that  you  will  hear  her/' 

Madame  Annekd  then  addressed  the  audience  for  a 
few  moments,  and  retired  amid  a  great  uproar,  which 
increased  when  Mr.  Phillips  presented  himself  again. 

"I  am  not  surprised  at  the  reception  I  meet,"  he 
shouted  in  a  loud  voice. 

"As  presiding  officer  for  this  evening,"  interposed 
the  president,  "I  call  upon  the  police.  The  mayor, 
too,  promised  to  see  that  our  meeting  should  not  be 
disturbed ;  and  I  now  call  upon  him  to  preserve  order. 
As  citizens  of  New  York,  we  have  a  right  to  this  pro- 
tection; for  we  pay  our  money  for  it.  My  friends, 
keep  order,  and  then  we  shall  know  who  the  disturbers 
are." 

"  You  are  making  a  better  speech  than  I  can,  by  your 
conduct,"  continued  Mr.  Phillips.  "  This  is  proof  posi- 
tive of  the  necessity  of  this  convention.  The  time  has 
been  when  other  conventions  have  been  met,  like  this, 
—  with  hisses.  [Renewed  hisses.]  Go  on  with  your 


A    YEAR   OF  MOBS  AND   CONVENTIONS'.        151 

hisses:  geese  have  hissed  before  now.  If  it  be  your 
pleasure  to  argue  the  question  for  us,  by  proving  that 
the  men  here,  at  least,  are  not  fit  for  exercising  political 
rights  "  —  [Great  uproar.] 

Again  the  president  called  upon  the  police  to  main- 
tain order. 

"  You  prove  one  thing  to-night,"  concluded  Mr. 
Phillips,  "that  the  men  of  New  York  do  not  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  civil  liberty  and  free  discussion." 

Five  minutes  later  the  convention  was  forced  to 
adjourn  sine  die. 

"  The  Tribune  "  of  Sept.  9  commented  severely  upon 
these  disgraceful  proceedings :  — 

"  We  do  not  know  whether  any  of  the  gentlemen  who  have 
succeeded  in  breaking  up  the  Woman's  Rights  Convention,  or  of 
the  other  gentlemen  who  have  succeeded  in  three  sessions  at  Met- 
ropolitan Hall  in  silencing  a  regularly  appointed  and  admitted 
delegate,  will  ever  be  ashamed  of  their  passion  and  hostility;  but 
we  have  little  doubt  that  some  of  them  will  live  to  understand 
their  own  folly." 

Thirty  years  have  passed  over  the  republic;  and 
later  generations,  recalling  these  painful  events  of  the 
past,  would  like  to  ask  those  gentlemen — what  answer? 


CHAPTER  XL 

PHILLIPS  AND  THE  WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT. 

A  Plan  for  Action  first  proposed.  —  The  Call.  —  Responses. —  The 
Worcester  Convention  of  1850.  —  Outline  of  the  Proceedings. — 
Attitude  of  the  Press.  — The  Convention  of  1851.  — Mr.  Phillips's 
Address. — Harriet  Martineau.  —  The  Legislature.  —  The  Boston 
Convention  of  1854.  —  Resolutions. — The  Convention  of  1855. — 
Donations.  —  Assembling  of  the  Seventh  National  Woman's  Rights 
Convention  in  New  York,  1856.  — Mr.  Phillips's  Speech.  —  Indif- 
ference of  Political  Parties  towards  the  Movement.  —  The  National 
Convention  of  1858.  — The  Convention  of  1859. —Mr.  Phillips 
makes  a  Stirring  Address.  —  The  Legislatures  Memorialized.  —  The 
New-England  Convention.  —Mr.  Phillips  again.  —The  " Drawing- 
Room"  Convention.  — Mrs.  DalFs  Lectures.  —The  Tenth  National 
Convention,  1860.  — Marriage  and  Divorce  discussed  —  Mr.  Phillips 
opposes  Discussion.  —  The  Woman  Question  laid  aside.  —  "After 
the  Slave  —  then  the  Woman." 

"  Throw  open  the  doors  of  Congress,  throw  open  those  court-houses,  throw  wide 
open  the  doors  of  your  colleges,  and  give  to  the  sisters  of  the  Motts  and  the  Somer- 
villes  the  same  opportunities  for  culture  that  men  have,  and  let  the  result  prove 
what  their  capacity  and  intellect  really  are." 

"  It  is  on  the  ground  of  natural  justice,  and  on  the  ground  again  of  the  highest 
expediency,  and  yet  again  it  is  because  woman,  as  an  immortal  and  intellectual 
being,  has  a  right  to  all  the  means  of  education,  — it  is  on  these  grounds  that  we 
claim  for  her  the  civil  rights  and  privileges  which  man  enjoys."  — PHILLIPS. 

A  T  an  anti-slavery  meeting  held  in  Boston,  in  1850, 
-*--*-  an  invitation  was  given  from  the  speaker's  desk 
to  all  those  who  felt  interested  in  a  plan  for  a  woman's 

152 


THE   WOMAN'S  BIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  153 

rights  convention,  to  meet  in  the  ante-room.  Nine  soli- 
tary women  responded,  and  went  into  "the  dark  and 
dingy  room,"  to  consult  together.  Of  the  nine,  seven 
were  chosen  to  call  a  convention  in  Massachusetts. 
We  are  told,  however,  that  "  the  work  devolved  upon 
one  person.  Illness  hindered  one,  duty  to  a  brother 
another,  duty  to  the  slave  a  third,  professional  engage- 
ments a  fourth,  the  fear  of  bringing  the  gray  hairs  of 
a  father  to  the  grave  prevented  another  from  serving ; 
but  the  pledge  was  made,  and  could  not  be  withdrawn." 
The  names  of  this  committee  were,  Harriot  K.  Hunt, 
Eliza  J.  Kenney,  Lucy  Stone,  Abby  Kelley  Foster, 
Dora  Taft  (Father  Taylor's  daughter),  Eliza  J.  Taft, 
and  Paulina  Wright  Davis,  —  the  last  named  being  the 
one  active  member. 

The  call  was  prepared,  and  sent  forth  with  earnest 
letters  in  all  directions.  Garrison  wrote,  — 

"  I  doubt  whether  a  more  important  movement  has  ever  been 
launched,  touching  the  destiny  of  the  race,  than  this  in  regard  to 
the  equality  of  the  sexes.  You  are  at  liberty  to  use  my  name." 

Catherine  M.  Sedgwick  wrote,  — 

"  You  do  me  but  justice  in  supposing  me  deeply  interested  in 
the  question  of  woman's  elevation." 

Dr.  Channing  wrote,  — 

"  The  new  movement  has  my  fullest  sympathy,  and  my  name 
is  at  its  service." 

There  was  also  the  following :  — 


154        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  You  are  at  liberty  to  append  my  own  and  my  wife's  name  to 
your  admirable  call. 

"ANNE  GREENE  PHILLIPS. 
"WENDELL  PHILLIPS." 

The  convention  was  held  in  Brinley  Hall,  Worcester, 
Mass.,  Oct.  23  and  24,  1850,  and  was  presided  over  by 
Mrs.  Paulina  W.  Davis  of  Rhode  Island.  Nine  States 
were  represented.  There  were  Garrison,  Phillips,  Bur- 
leigh,  Foster,  and  Pillsbury,  leaders  in  the  anti-slavery 
strfiggle;  Frederick  Douglass  and  Sojourner  Truth, 
representing  the  enslaved  African  race ;  the  Channings, 
Sargents,  Parsons,  Shaws,  from  the  liberal  pulpit  and 
the  aristocracy  of  Boston. 

The  proceedings,  which  extended  through  the  greater 
part  of  two  days,  were  of  a  most  interesting  character. 
The  debates  on  the  resolutions  were  spicy,  pointed,  and 
logical,  and  were  participated  in  by  Phillips,  Channing, 
Garrison,  and  other  able  speakers.  It  is  to  be  regretted, 
that,  in  the  absence  of  a  phonographic  reporter,  none 
of  the  addresses  have  been  handed  down  to  history. 

Before  the  close  of  the  session,  Dr.  Channing,  from 
the  business  committee,  proposed  a  plan  for  organiza- 
tion, and  the  principles  that  should  govern  the  move- 
ment. In  accordance  with  his  views,  a  national  central 
committee  was  appointed,  in  which  every  State  was 
represented.  Of  this  committee  Wendell  Phillips  was 
made  treasurer. 

It  is  related  that  "tidings  of  this  and  of  the  Ohio 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  155 

convention  (same  year,  in  May)  travelled  across  the 
ocean ;  and  their  deliberations  were  ably  discussed  by 
Mrs.  John  Stuart  Mill  in  '  The  Westminster  Review,' 
and  great  attention  was  aroused  thereby  as  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that 
the  whole  woman's  rights  agitation  in  Old  England,  as 
well  as  in  Massachusetts  and  in  New  England,  may  be 
dated  from  these  conventions  of  1850." 

Notwithstanding  that  the  "Hen  Convention"  (so 
called  jocosely)  attracted  the  attention  of  the  English 
quarterly,  only  four  newspapers  in  Massachusetts  treated 
the  subject  \fith  any  respect.  These  were,  "  The  Lynn 
Pioneer,"  edited  by  George  Bradborn;  "The  Liberator," 
edited  by  Garrison;  "The  Carpet  Bag"  (the  "Punch" 
of  those  days)  ;  and  "  The  Lowell  American,"  a  little 
Free-soil  paper  edited  by  William  S.  Robinson,  after- 
wards known  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  "  Warrington." 

Mrs.  Harriet  H.  Robinson  remarks  that,  — 

"  The  central  idea  of  the  woman's  rights  movement  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  desire  on  the  part  of  some  women  to  wear  men's 
clothes,  and  learn  to  crow ;  but  whether  like  men,  or  like  barn- 
yard bipeds,  was  never  very  clearly  denned.  When  Lucy  Stone 
went  to  Maiden  (a  suburban  town,  near  Boston),  to  speak  for  the 
first  time  for  woman's  rights,  a  Universalist  clergyman  announced 
the  proposed  meeting  from  his  pulpit,  in  these  words  :  '  This  even- 
ing, at  the  Town  Hall,  a  hen  will  attempt  to  crow.'  This  was 
thought  to  be  a  huge  joke." 

On  the  15th  and  16th  of  October,  1851,  the  friends 


156        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

of  woman  suffrage  assembled  again  in  Brinley  Hall. 
The  convention  was  conducted  mainly  by  the  same 
persons  who  had  so  successfully  managed  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  previous  year.  Letters  were  read  from 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Horace 
Mann,  Angelina  Grimk£  Weld,  Oliver  Johnson,  and 
many  others.  Among  the  new  speakers  were  several 
noted  suffragists  from  other  States  of  the  Union. 

After  reading  the  resolutions,  which  in  great  part 
he  had  himself  prepared,  Mr.  Phillips  delivered  his  first 
speech,  of  which  any  phonographic  report  is  in  exist- 
ence, in  support  of  the  rights  of  women.  It  was  a 
remarkable  address,  as  showing  not  only  the  manly 
attitude  which  Mr.  Phillips  had  taken  towards  the  sub- 
ject, but  also  in  its  severe  denunciation  of  all  opposition 
in  the  matter.  The  concluding  paragraphs  are  here 
given :  — 

"  Woman  is  ground  down,  by  the  competition  of  her  sisters,  to 
the  very  point  of  starvation.  Heavily  taxed,  ill  paid,  in  degra- 
dation and  misery,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  she  yields  to  the 
temptation  of  wealth?  It  is  the  same  with  men;  and  thus  we 
recruit  the  ranks  of  vice  by  the  prejudices  of  custom  and  society. 
We  corrupt  the  whole  social  fabric,  that  women  may  be  confined 
to  two  or  three  employments.  How  much  do  we  suffer  through 
the  tyranny  of  prejudice  !  When  we  penitently  and  gladly  give 
to  the  energy  and  the  intellect  and  the  enterprise  of  woman  their 
proper  reward,  their  appropriate  employment,  this  question  of 
wages  will  settle  itself;  and  it  will  never  be  settled  at  all  until 
then. 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  157 

"  This  question  is  intimately  connected  with  the  great  social 
problem,  —  the  vices  of  cities.  You  who  hang  your  heads  in 
terror  and  shame,  in  view  of  the  advancing  demoralization  of 
modern  civilized  life,  and  turn  away  with  horror-struck  faces,  look 
back  now  to  these  social  prejudices  which  have  made  you  close 
the  avenues  of  profitable  employment  in  the  face  of  woman,  and 
reconsider  the  conclusions  you  have  made!  Look  back,  I  say, 
and  see  whether  you  are  surely  right  here.  Come  up  with  us, 
and  argue  the  question,  and  say  whether  this  most  artificial  deli- 
cacy, this  childish  prejudice,  on  whose  Moloch  altar  you  sacrifice 
the  virtue  of  so  many,  is  worthy  the  exalted  worship  you  pay  it. 
Consider  a  moment.  From  what  sources  are  the  ranks  of  female 
profligacy  recruited?  A  few,  mere  giddiness  hurries  to  ruin. 
Their  protection  would  be  in  that  character  and  sound  common 
sense  which  a  wider  interest  in  practical  life  would  generally  cre- 
ate. In  a  few,  the  love  of  sensual  gratification,  grown  over-strong 
because  all  the  other  powers  are  dormant  for  want  of  exercise, 
wrecks  its  unhappy  victim.  The  medicine  for  these  would  be 
occupation,  awaking  intellect,  and  stirring  their  highest  energies. 
Give  any  one  an  earnest  interest  in  life,  something  to  do,  some- 
thing that  kindles  emulation,  and  soon  the  gratification  of  the 
senses  sinks  into  proper  subordination.  It  is  idle  heads  that  are 
tempted  to  mischief ;  and  she  is  emphatically  idle,  half  of  whose 
nature  is  unemployed.  Why  does  man,  so  much  oftener  than 
woman,  surmount  a  few  years  or  months  of  sensual  gratification, 
and  emerge  into  a  worthier  life  ?  It  is  not  solely  because  the 
world's  judgment  is  so  much  harder  upon  her.  Man  can  immerse 
himself  in  business  that  stirs  keenly  all  his  faculties,  and  thus  he 
smothers  passion  in  honorable  cares.  An  ordinary  woman,  once 
fallen,  has  no  busy  and  stirring  life  in  which  to  take  refuge,  where 
intellect  will  contend  for  mastery  with  passion,  and  where  virtue 
is  braced  by  high  and  active  thoughts.  Passion  comes  back  to 


158        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  'empty,'  through  < swept  and  garnished,'  chambers,  bringing 
with  him  more  devils  than  before.'  But,  undoubtedly,  the  great 
temptation  to  this  vice  is  the  love  of  dress,  wealth,  and  the  lux- 
uries it  secures.  Facts  will  jostle  theories  aside.  Whether  we 
choose  to  acknowledge  it  or  not,  there  are  many  women,  earning 
two  or  three  dollars  a  week,  who  feel  that  they  are  as  capable  as 
their  brothers  of  earning  hundreds,  if  they  could  be  permitted 
to  exert  themselves  as  freely.  Fretting  to  see  the  coveted  rewards 
of  life  forever  forbidden  them,  they  are  tempted  to  shut  their 
eyes  on  the  character  of  the  means  by  which  a  taste,  however 
short,  may  be  gained  of  the  wealth  and  luxury  they  sigh  for. 
Open  to  man  a  fair  field  for  his  industry,  and  secure  to  him  its 
gains,  and  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  men  out  of  every  thou- 
sand will  disdain  to  steal.  Open  to  woman  a  fair  field  for  her 
industry,  let  her  do  any  thing  her  hands  find  to  do,  and  enjoy  her 
gains,  and  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  women  out  of  every 
thousand  will  disdain  to  debase  themselves  for  dress  or  ease. 

"  Of  this  great  social  problem,  —  to  cure  or  lessen  the  vice  of 
cities,  —  there  is  no  other  solution  except  what  this  movement 
offers  you.  It  is,  to  leave  woman  to  choose  her  own  employments 
for  herself,  responsible,  as  we  are,  to  the  common  Creator,  and 
not  to  her  fellow-man.  I  exhort  you,  therefore,  to  look  at  this 
question  in  the  spirit  in  which  I  have  endeavored  to  present  it  to 
you.  It  is  no  fanciful,  no  superficial,  movement,  based  on  a  few 
individual  tastes,  in  morbid  sympathy  with  tales  of  individual 
suffering.  It  is  a  great  social  protest  against  the  very  fabric  of 
society.  It  is  a  question  which  goes  down  —  we  admit  it,  and 
are  willing  to  meet  the  issue  —  goes  down  beneath  the  altar  at 
which  you  worship,  goes  down  beneath  this  social  system  in  which 
you  live.  And  it  is  true,  —  no  denying  it,  —  that,  if  we  are  right, 
the  doctrines  preached  from  New-England  pulpits  are  wrong.  It 
is  true  that  all  this  affected  horror  at  woman's  deviation  from  her 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  159 

sphere  is  a  mistake,  —  a  mistake  fraught  with  momentous  conse- 
quences. Understand  us.  We  blink  no  fair  issue.  We  throw 
down  the  gauntlet.  We  have  counted  the  cost:  we  know  the 
yoke  and  burden  we  assume.  We  know  the  sneers,  the  lying 
frauds  of  misstatement  and  misrepresentation,  that  await  us. 
We  have  counted  all ;  and  it  is  but  the  dust  in  the  balance,  and 
the  small  dust  in  the  measure,  compared  with  the  inestimable 
blessing  of  doing  justice  to  one-half  of  the  human  species,  of 
curing  this  otherwise  immedicable  wound,  stopping  this  overflow- 
ing fountain  of  corruption,  at  the  very  source  of  civilized  life. 
Truly,  it  is  the  great  question  of  the  age.  It  looks  all  others  out 
of  countenance.  It  needs  little  aid  from  legislation.  Specious 
objections,  after  all,  are  not  arguments.  We  know  we  are  right. 
We  only  ask  an  opportunity  to  argue  the  question,  to  set  it  full 
before  the  people,  and  then  leave  it  to  the  intellects  and  hearts 
of  our  country,  confident  that  the  institutions  under  which  we 
live,  and  the  education  which  other  reforms  have  already  given  to 
both  sexes,  have  created  men  and  women  capable  of  solving  a 
problem  even  more  difficult,  and  meeting  a  change  even  more 
radical,  than  this." 

The  proceedings  of  the  convention  were  still  further 
made  memorable  by  the  reading  of  a  letter  received 
from  Harriet  Martineau,  which  very  clearly  defined 
what  was  her  position  at  that  early  day. 

The  interest  which  Mr.  Phillips  shared  with  others 
in  the  woman's  rights  movement  continued  to  grow 
stronger  as  the  years  crept  on.  Upon  no  other  subject, 
save  anti-slavery,  did  he  bestow  so  much  thought.  In 
April,  1853,  an  appeal  to  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
was  made,  on  the  question  of  allowing  equal  political 


160        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

rights  to  women.  In  favor  of  this  appeal,  Mr.  Phillips 
made  a  stirring  address  before  the  constitutional  con- 
vention. He  was  followed  by  T.  W.  Higginson,  Theo- 
dore Parker,  and  Lucy  Stone.  In  August  of  that  year, 
in  committee  of  the  whole,  the  report  that  "  it  is  inex- 
pedient to  act  on  the  petition  "  of  several  parties  that 
women  may  vote,  was  taken  up.  This  report  was,  on 
the  next  clay,  adopted  by  a  vote  of  a  hundred  and  eight 
to  forty-four. 

But  the  ball  was  kept  rolling.  On  the  very  day  that 
saw  poor  Anthony  Burns  arrested  in  Boston,  and  con- 
signed back  to  hopeless  bondage,  —  June  2,  1854, — 
the  first  woman's  rights  convention  ever  held  in  Boston 
assembled  at  Horticultural  Hall.  Though  many  friends 
of  the  women  remained  in  the  streets,  to  witness  the 
sad  surrender,  still  at  an  early  hour  the  hall  was  filled 
with  earnest  representatives  of  both  sexes. 

Among  the  resolutions  reported  were  the  follow- 
ing:— 

"Resolved,  That  the  common  law,  which  governs  the  marriage 
relation,  and  blots  out  the  legal  existence  of  a  wife,  denies  her 
right  to  the  product  of  her  own  industry,  denies  her  equal  property 
rights,  even  denies  her  right  to  her  children,  and  the  custody  of  her 
own  person,  is  grossly  unjust  to  woman,  dishonorable  to  man,  and 
destructive  to  the  harmony  of  life's  holiest  relation. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  laws  which  destroy  the  legal  individuality 
of  woman  after  her  marriage,  are  equally  pernicious  to  man  as  to 
•woman,  and  may  give  to  him  in  marriage  a  slave,  or  a  tyrant,  but 
never  a  wife." 


THE  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS  MOVEMENT.        161 

Mr.  Phillips,  Mr.  Garrison,  and  a  number  of  others, 
took  part  in  the  debate. 

Sept.  19  and  20,  1855,  the  convention  met  again  in 
Boston,  with  the  best  attendance  that  Boston  could 
furnish  in  intelligence  and  respectability,  and,  to  a 
^  greater  degree  than  usual,  clerical.  On  the  first  day- 
Mr.  Phillips  addressed  the  members,  and  at  other  times 
through  the  six  sessions  managed  to  keep  himself  busy. 
It  was  largely  through  his  efforts  that  the  association 
obtained  the  money  to  enable  them  to  carry  on  the 
agitation..  Francis  Jackson  and  Charles  F.  Hov.ey, 
always  generous  towards  the  reforms  of  their  time,  were 
the  first  men  to  make  a  bequest  to  the  woman's  rights 
movement  in  Massachusetts.  Besides  giving  liberally 
from  time  to  time,  Francis  Jackson  left  five  thousand 
dollars,  in  1858,  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Phillips ;  which  the 
latter  invested  so  wisely,  and  so  judiciously  managed, 
that  the  fund  was  nearly  doubled  ere  long.  Mr.  Hovey 
left  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  be  used  in  anti-slavery, 
woman  suffrage,  and  free  religion. 

In  passing,  it  is  well  to  recall  the  fact  that  Lydia 
Maria  Child  left  a  thousand  dollars  to  the  movement. 
With  this  single  exception,  no  other  woman  of  wealth 
has  ever  bequeathed  any  thing  to  the  enfranchisement 
of  her  sex,  —  a  fact  singularly  strange,  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  such  women  never  forget  colleges, 
churches,  or  public  charities. 

Pursuant  to  a  call  issued  by  the  central  committee, 


162        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  Seventh  National  Woman's  Rights  Convention  was 
held  in  New- York  City,  at  the  Broadway  Tabernacle, 
Nov.  25  and  26,  1856.  Mr.  Phillips,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  business  committee,  and  also  treasurer,  was, 
of  course,  present.  His  address  in  the  evening  was 
thoroughly  characteristic,  and  in  interest  fairly  rivals 
that  which  he  made  at  the  Worcester  Convention  in 
1851.  From  the  phonographic  report,  revised  by  him- 
self, the  following  portion  is  here  given :  — 

"  I  would  have  it  constantly  kept  before  the  public,  that  we  do 
not  seek  to  prop  up  woman  :  we  only  ask  for  her  space  to  let  her 
grow.  Governments  are  not  made,  they  grow.  They  are  not 
buildings  like  this,  with  dome  and  pillars:  they  are  oaks,  with 
roots  and  branches ;  and  they  grow,  by  God's  blessing,  in  the  soil 
he  gives  to  them.  Now,  man  has  been  allowed  to  grow ;  and  when 
Pharaoh  tied  him  down  with  bars  of  iron,  when  Europe  tied  him 
down  with  privilege  and  superstition,  he  burst  the  bonds,  and  grew 
strong.  We  ask  the  same  for  woman.  Goethe  said,  that,  if  you 
plant  an  oak  in  a  flower- pot,  one  of  two  things  was  sure  to  hap- 
pen, —  either  the  oak  will  be  dwarfed,  or  the  flower-pot  will  break. 
So  we  have  planted  woman  in  a  flower-pot,  hemmed  her  in  by 
restrictions ;  and,  when  we  move  to  enlarge  her  sphere,  society  cries 
out,  'Oh,  you'll  break  the  flower-pot!'  AVell,  I  say,  let  it  break. 
Man  made  it ;  and,  the  sooner  it  goes  to  pieces,  the  better.  Let  us 
see  how  broadly  the  branches  will  throw  themselves,  and  how 
beautiful  will  be  the  shape,  and  how  glorious  against  the  moonlit 
sky,  or  glowing  sunset,  the  foliage  shall  appear ! 

"  I  say,  the  very  first  claim,  the  middle  and  last  claim,  of  all  our 
conventions,  should  be  the  ballot.  Everywhere,  in  each  State,  we 
should  claim  it,  —  not  for  any  intrinsic  value  in  the  ballot,  but  be- 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  163 

cause  it  throws  upon  woman  herself  the  responsibility  of  her  posi- 
tion. Man  never  grew  to  his  stature  until  he  was  provoked  to  it 
by  the  pressure  and  weight  of  responsibility ;  and,  I  take  it,  woman 
will  grow  up  the  same  way." 

This  convention  was  held  immediately  after  the  elec* 
tion  of  James  Buchanan  to  the  presidency,  and  at  a 
time  when  the  anti-slavery  problem  was  the  most  im- 
portant and  absorbing  in  the  public  mind.  Gen.  Fr&- 
mont  had  been  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  the  name  of  Jessie  Benton  Fr&nont  had  been  made 
a  rallying-cry  of  the  campaign. 

It  appears  that  "the  convention,  taking  advantage 
of  this  fact,  made  an  appeal  in  its  resolutions  to  both 
the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties,  to  do  justice  'to 
both  halves  of  the  human  race.' r  To  the  Republican 
party  it  said,  — 

"  ^ 

"Resolved,  That  the  Republican  party,  appealing  constantly, 
through  its  orators,  to  female  sympathy,  and  using  for  its  most 
popular  rallying-cry  a  female  name,  is  peculiarly  pledged,  by  con- 
sistency, to  do  justice  hereafter  in  those  States  where  it  holds  con- 
trol." 

It  need  hardly  be  added,  that  no  notice  was  taken  of 
this  appeal  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  And 
yet  the  Republican  party  was  fast  coming  into  power, 
made  up  of  men  who  were  old  anti-slavery  and  Free- 
soi-1  political  leaders,  whose  niotto  was,  Emancipation, 
free  speech,  and  a  free  world. 


164        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"After  Fremont  was  defeated,  it  seemed  to  those 
who  had  labored  so  long  for  the  black  man's  freedom, 
and  for  the  rights  of  woman,  as  if  both  causes  were 
lost.  The  woman  movement  was  silent  for  a  period 
of  three  years." 

The  year  1857  passed  without  a  national  convention 
being  held  in  New  York  or  elsewhere.  In  the  follow- 
ing year,  however,  the  Eighth  National  Convention 
was  called  in  New  York.  The  session  opened  in  May. 
Mr.  Phillips,  as  usual,  was  one  of  the  speakers. 

On  the  12th  of  May,  1859,  the  Ninth  National  Con- 
vention assembled  in  the  same  city.  It  proved  to  be 
a  turbulent  session;  and  all  the  speakers,  with  one 
accord,  were  forced  to  yield  the  platform  to  Mr.  Phil- 
lips, who,  for  nearly  two  hours,  "held  the  mocking 
crowd  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand."  In  closing,  he 
said,  — 

"  I  will  not  attempt  to  detain  you  longer.  ["  Go  on,  go  on  ! "] 
I  have  neither  the  disposition  nor  the  strength  to  trespass  any 
longer  upon  your  attention.  The  subject  is  so  large,  that  it  might 
well  fill  days  instead  of  hours.  It  covers  the  whole  surface  of 
American  society.  It  touches  religion,  purity,  political  economy, 
wages,  the  safety  of  cities,  the  growth  of  ideas,  the  very  success 
of  our  experiment.  I  gave  to-night  a  character  of  the  city  of 
Washington,  which  some  men  hissed.  You  know  it  is. true.  If  this 
experiment  of  self-government  is  to  succeed,  it  is  to  succeed  by 
some  saving  element  introduced  into  the  politics  of  the  present  day. 
You  know  this :  your  Websters,  your  Clays,  your  Calhouns,  your 
Douglases,  however  intellectually  able  they  may  have  been,  have 


THE  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS  MOVEMENT.        165 

never  dared  or  cared  to  touch  that  moral  element  of  our  national 
life.  Either  the  shallow  and  heartless  trade  of  politics  had  eaten 
out  their  own  moral  being,  or  they  feared  to  enter  the  unknown 
land  of  lofty  right  and  wrong. 

"Neither  of  these  great  names  has  linked  its  fame  with  one 
great  moral  question  of  the  day.  They  deal  with  money  ques- 
tions, with  tariffs,  with  parties,  with  State  law ;  and  if,  by  chance, 
they  touch  the  slave-question,  it  is  only  like  Jewish  hucksters 
trading  in  the  relics  of  saints.  The  reformers  —  the  fanatics,  as 
we  are  called  —  are  the  only  ones  who  have  launched  social  and 
moral  questions.  I  risk  nothing  when  I  say,  that  the  anti-slavery 
discussion  of  the  last  twenty  years  has  been  the  salt  of  this  nation : 
it  has  actually  kept  it  alive  and  wholesome.  Without  it  our  poli- 
tics would  have  sunk  beyond  even  contempt.  So  with  this  ques- 
tion. It  stirs  the  deepest  sympathy;  it  appeals  to  the  highest  moral 
sense ;  it  inwraps  within  itself  the  greatest  moral  issues.  Judge 
it,  then,  candidly,  carefully,  as  Americans ;  and  let  us  show  our- 
selves worthy  of  the  high  place  to  which  God  has  called  us  in 
human  affairs." 

A  memorial  was  also  prepared  and  signed  by  the 
leaders  in  the  movement,  and  sent  to  every  Legislature 
in  the  nation ;  but,  owing  to  the  excitement  caused  by 
the  John  Brown  raid,  it  commanded  but  little  atten- 
tion. 

On  the  27th  of  May,  of  this  year,  the  New-England 
Convention  was  held  in  Boston.  Rev.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  made  a  stirring  address,  followed  by  Mrs.  Caro- 
line H.  Ball,  Rev.  John  T.  Sargent,  and  Mr.  Phillips. 
The  speech  of  Mr.  Phillips  abounded  in  felicitous 
thoughts;  and,  being  still  in  existence  as  reported,  it 


166        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

will  well  repay  perusal.      One    paragraph    must    be 
quoted  here:  — 

"  Many  a  young  girl,  in  her  married  life,  loses  her  husband,  and 
thus  is  left  a  widow  with  two  or  three  children.  Now,  who  is  to 
educate  them  and  control  them  ?  We  see,  if  left  to  her  own  re- 
sources, the  intellect  which  she  possesses,  and  which  has  remained 
in  a  comparatively  dormant  state,  displayed  in  its  full  power. 
What  a  depth  of  heart  lay  hidden  in  that  woman !  She  takes  her 
husband's  business,  guides  it  as  though  it  were  a  trifle  ;  she  takes 
her  S9ns,  and  leads  them ;  sets  her  daughters  an  example ;  like  a 
master-leader  she  governs  the  whole  household.  That  is  woman's 
influence.'  What  made  that  woman?  Responsibility.  Call  her 
out  from  weakness,  lay  upon  her  soul  the  burden  of  her  children's 
education,  and  she  is  no  longer  a  girl,  but  a  woman. 

"  Horace  Greeley  once  said  to  Margaret  Fuller,  '  If  you  should 
ask  a  woman  to  carry  a  ship  round  Cape  Horn,  how  would  she  go 
to  work  to  do  it?  Let  her  do  this,  and  I  will  give  up  the  ques- 
tion.' In  the  fall  of  1856  a  Boston  girl,  only  twenty  years  of  age, 
accompanied  her  husband  to  California.  A  brain-fever  laid  him 
low.  In  the  presence  of  mutiny  and  delirium,  she  took  his  vacant 
post,  preserved  order,  and  carried  her  cargo  safe  to  its  destined 
port.  Looking  in  the  face  of  Mr.  Greeley,  Miss  Fuller  said,  '  Lo ! 
my  dear  Horace,  it  is  done.  Now,  say,  what  shall  woman  do 
next?'"  [Cheers.] 

.  On  the  1st  of  June,  1860,  a  "drawing-room"  con- 
vention was  held  at  the  Meionian,  in  Boston.  It  was 
initiated  by  Mrs.  Caroline  H.  Ball,  with  the  object  of 
discussing  the  artistic  and  aesthetic  features  of  the 
woman  question.  Several  speakers,  including  Mr.  Phil- 
lips, were  in  attendance,  and  took  part  in  the  discus- 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  167 

sions.  On  the  whole,  this  convention  was  probably 
the  most  aristocratic  meeting  of  the  kind  held  up  to 
that  day.  Just  previous  to  this,  Mrs.  Dall  had  given 
a  course  of  twelve  lectures  in  Boston,  on  the  various 
phases  of  woman's  rights;  and  these  lectures  had  at- 
tracted many  ladies  of  culture  and  high  social  position, 
and  induced  them  to  take  interest  in  the  cause.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  affirm,  that  Mrs.  Ball's  lectures,  and 
the  resum£  of  them  which  was  published  in  book-form 
in  1868,  and  had  a  wide  circulation,  exerted  an  im- 
mense influence  in  forming  public  opinion,  and  creating 
interest  on  the  subjects  of  which  she  treated.1 

The  Tenth  National  Convention,  which  was  held  in 
New  York,  in  May,  1860,  was  chiefly  memorable  be- 
cause of  a  disagreement  which  arose  during  the  session. 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  StantoD  moved  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions looking  towards  greater  freedom  of  divorce,  and 
supported  them  in  a  lengthy  address.  Mr.  Phillips,  to 
the  great  surprise  of  many  who  were  present,  objected 
to  the  question  of  marriage  and  divorce  as  irrelevant 
to  the  platform,  and  said, — 

"  The  reason  why  I  object  so  emphatically  to  the  introduction 
of  the  question  here,  is  because  it  is  a  question  which  admits  of 
so  many  theories,  physiological  and  religious,  and  what  is  techni- 
cally called  *  free  love,'  that  it  is  large  enough  for  a  movement  of 

i  The  College,  the  Market,  and  the  Court;  or,  Woman's  Relation 
to  Education,  Employment,  and  Citizenship.  By  Mrs.  C.  H.  Dall. 
Boston:  Lee  &  Shepard. 


168        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

its  own.  Our  question  is  only  unnecessarily  burdened  with  it.  It 
cannot  be  kept  within  the  convenient  limits  of  this  enterprise, 
for  this  Woman's  Rights  Convention  is  not  man's  convention; 
and  I  hold  that  I,  as  a  man,  have  an  exactly  equal  interest  in  the 
essential  question  of  marriage  as  woman  has." 

Mr.  Phillips  moved  to  lay  the  resolutions  on  the 
table,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  object  to  their  being 
entered  on  the  journal  of  the  convention.  Mr.  Garri- 
son, while  concurring  "  in  opinion  with  his  friend  Mr. 
Phillips,"  thought  that  the  resolutions  ought  to  be 
adopted. 

The  question  being  put,  Mr.  Phillips's  motion  was 
lost.  The  resolutions,  reported  by  the  business  com- 
mittee, were  then  adopted  without  dissent. 

In  1861  came  the  "war  of  the  Rebellion."  The 
women  who  had  so  perseveringly  worked  for  their  own 
enfranchisement,  now  gave  all  their  time  and  thought 
to  saving  the  nation,  and  caring  for  its  brave  defenders. 
Whilst  fathers  and  sons,  husbands  and  lovers,  were 
fighting  and  bleeding  under  the  stars  and  stripes, 
mothers,  wives,  and  sweethearts  were  busily  plying 
their  fingers  in  the  sewing-circles,  lending  their  assist- 
ance in  the  sanitary  movement,  watching  the  sick  in  the 
hospitals,  or  closing  the  eyes  of  the  dying  on  the  battle- 
field,—  as  if  all  this  were  not  enough  to  have  made 
"justice  to  woman"  the  spontaneous  cry  on  the  return 
of  the  first  days  of  peace. 

"It  is  not  the  woman's,  but   the  negro's,  hour:" 


THE   WOMAN'S  EIGHTS  MOVEMENT.  169 

"after  the  slave,  then  the  woman,"  said  Phillips,  in 
his  stirring  speecKes  of  the  time. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  to  1866,  there 
is  no  record  to  be  found  of  any  public  meeting  on  the 
subject  of  woman's  rights,  in  which  any  Massachusetts 
speaker  appeared. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  PREPARATION   FOR   WAR. 

The  Politics  of  1853.  —  Franklin  Pierce,  President.  —  The  "Kansas 
and  Nebraska  Bill."  — The  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  — 
Simmer  foresees  the  "Beginning  of  the  End." — A  Convention  of 
the  Free-soil  Party.  —  The  Republican  Party. — Workings  of  the 
Fugitive-slave  Act.  —  Arrest  of  Anthony  Burns.  —  A  Famous  Meet- 
ing. —  Indictments  found  against  Phillips,  Parker,  and  Others.  — 
The  Result.  — A  Petition  for  the  Removal  of  "Slave  Commis- 
sioner "  Loring.  — Mr.  Phillips's  Argument.  —  "  The  Crime  against 
Kansas." —  Assault  on  Charles  Sumner. — Election  of  James 
Buchanan.  —  The  Signs  of  the  Times.  —  The  John  Brown  Raid.  — 
Mr.  Phillips's  Eulogy. — His  Lecture  in  Brooklyn. — Mr.  Slack's 
Recollections.  —  Riotous  Feeling  in  New  York  and  Elsewhere.  — 
Anniversary  Meeting  in  Boston.  —  A  Riot  prevented. 

"Insurrection  of  thought  always  precedes  the  insurrection  of  arms." 

"God  gives  us  knowledge,  keeps  for  us  the  weapon:  all  we  need  ask  for  is 
courage  to  use  it." 

"You  and  I  are  never  to  see  peace,  we  are  never  to  see  the  possibility  of  putting 
the  army  of  this  nation,  whether  it  be  made  up  of  nineteen  or  thirty-four  States,  on 
a  peace- footing,  until  slavery  is  destroyed." 

"  A  civil  war  can  hardly  be  any  thing  but  a  political  war.  That  is,  all  civil  wars 
are  a  struggle  between  opposite  ideas,  and  armies  are  but  the  tools."  —  PHILLIPS. 

TT^RANKLIN  PIERCE  took  the  oath  of  office  on 

the  4th  of  March,  1853.     Thoroughly  incapable  of 

comprehending  the  past  history  of  his  country,  it  was 

not  strange  that  his  dull  or  diseased  brain  should  fail 

170 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  171 

to  forecast  even  the  near  or  immediate  future.  The 
most  remarkable  event  in  the  progress  of  the  anti- 
slavery  conflict  happened  during  his  administration. 
But  for  this  event,  which  will  ever  perpetuate  his 
name,  President  Pierce  would  long  ago  have  faded  out 
of  remembrance. 

In  December,  1853,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois 
proposed  a  bill  in  the  United-States  Senate,  to  organize 
the  immense  region  extending  from  the  confines  of 
Missouri,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  to  the  crest  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  from  36°  30'  north  latitude  to  the  Brit- 
ish Possessions,  into  two  territories,  to  be  known  as 
Kansas  and  Nebraska.  This  bill  contained  a  clause 
repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise,  under  the  plea  that 
it  was  "inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  non-inter- 
vention by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the  States  and 
Territories,  as  recognized  by  the  compromise  measures 
of  1850."  The  people  were  taken  by  surprise ;  for  the 
question,  so  destructive  to  national  harmony,  and  which 
it  was  hoped  had  been  settled  forever,  had  assumed  a 
new  form.  The  Missouri  Compromise  had  been  deemed 
a  sacred  compact  between  the  North  and  South,  and,  as 
such,  for  the  third  of  a  century  had  received  the  sanc- 
tion of  all  parties. 

The  debates  on  the  bill  extended  over  many  weeks. 
On  the  ^5th  of  May,  1854,  it  passed  Congress,  and, 
having  been  signed  on  the  following  day  by  the  Presi- 
dent, at  once  became  the  law  of  the  land. 


172        LIFE  AND   TINES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  It  is  at  once  the  worst  and  the  best  bill  [exclaimed  Charles 
Sumner]  on  which  Congress  ever  acted !  It  is  the  worst  bill,  inas- 
much as  it  is  a  present  victory  of  slavery.  ...  It  is  the  best  bill, 
for  it  prepares  the  way  for  that « All  hail  hereafter '  when  slavery 
must  disappear.  Standing  at  the  very  grave  of  freedom  in  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  I  lift  myself  to  the  vision  of  that  happy  resurrection 
by  which  freedom  will  be  secured  hereafter,  not  only  in  these  Terri- 
tories, but  everywhere  under  the  National  Government.  More 
clearly  than  ever  before,  I  now  see  *  the  beginning  of  the  end '  of 
slavery.  Proudly  I  discern  the  flag  of  my  country,  as  it  ripples  in 
every  breeze,  at  last  become,  in  reality  as  in  name,  the  flag  of  free- 
dom, undoubted,  pure,  and  irresistible.  Sorrowfully  I  bend  before 
the  wrong  you  are  about  to  enact :  joyfully  I  welcome  all  the 
promises  of  the  future." 

On  the  31st  of  May  a  State  convention  of  the  Free- 
soil  party  was  held  in  Boston,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  at  which 
a  series  of  resolutions,  denunciatory  of  the  Fugitive-slave 
Bill  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  was  passed.  "  The 
time  has  come,"  it  was  said,  "  to  forget  the  past,  oblit- 
erate the  Fugitive-slave  Act,  and  to  do  what  we  can 
to  place  the  country  perpetually  on  the  side  of  free- 
dom." 

Shortly  afterwards  a  strong  effort  was  made  in  the 
State,  to  unite  the  opponents  of  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri prohibition,  and  to  form  a  political  organization 
that  should  be  untrammelled  by  slaveholding  alliances. 
On  the  20th  of  July  a  mass  convention  of  the  people 
at  Worcester  declared  in  favor  of  a  new  organization, 
to  be  called  the  "  Republican "  party ;  and  on  the  7th 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   WAR.  173 

of  September  the  first  State  convention  of  the  party 
was  held  at  the  same  place. 

Meanwhile  the  Fugitive-slave  Act  was  in  working- 
order.  On  the  23d  of  May  Charles  F.  Suttle  of  Vir- 
ginia presented  to  Edward  Greeley  Loring  of  Boston, 
judge  of  probate,  and  commissioner,  a  complaint  praying 
for  the  seizure  and  enslavement  of  Anthony  Burns. 
The  warrant  was  issued ;  and  on  the  next  day  Burns 
was  arrested  under  the  false  pretext  of  burglary,  and 
confined  in  the  Suffolk-county  court-house.  At  first 
the  right  of  counsel  was  denied  to  the  prisoner ;  but,  at 
the  remonstrance  of  Theodore  Parker  and  others,  coun- 
sel were  assigned,  and  the  27th  of  May  was  appointed 
as  the  day  for  the  hearing. 

On  the  evening  of  the  26th  a  great  meeting  was 
held  at  Faneuil  Hall.  During  the  morning  and  after- 
noon of  that  day,  certain  members  of  the  vigilance  com- 
mittee—  including  Parker,  Phillips,  Higginson,  Kemp, 
Stowell,  and  Dr.  Howe  —  discussed  the  plan  of  making 
a  sudden  attack  on  the  court-house,  and  of  using  the 
Faneuil-hall  crowd  to  this  end.  It  was  voted  down, 
however,  three  to  one.  The  meeting  adjourned  about 
five  o'clock,  and  those  gentlemen  who  were  to  address 
the  gathering  at  the  hall  in  the  evening  were  cautioned 
not  to  allow  the  audience  to  break  up  for  any  unpre- 
pared attack  on  the  court-house.  Between  the  hour  of 
adjournment  and  that  fixed  for  the  public  meeting,  cer- 
tain members  of  the  vigilance  committee  decided  them- 
selves to  make  the  attack. 


174        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

At  the  appointed  hour  Faneuil  Hall  was  filled  to 
overflowing.  Samuel  G.  Howe  called  the  meeting  to 
order ;  George  R.  Russell  presided  ;  and  speeches  were 
made  by  Parker,  Phillips,  and  others.  The  suppressed 
excitement  of  the  audience  was  intense. 

Said  Theodore  Parker,  — 

"  I  am  a  clergyman  and  a  man  of  peace.  I  love  peace.  But 
there  is  a  means,  and  there  is  an  end.  Liberty  is  the  end,  and 
sometimes  peace  is  not  the  means  toward  it.  There  are  ways  of 
managing  this  matter  [the  Burns  affair]  without  shooting  any- 
body. Be  sure  that  these  men  who  have  kidnapped  a  man  in 
Boston  are  cowards,  every  mother's  son  of  them ;  and  if  we  stand  up 
there  resolutely,  and  declare  that  this  man  shall  not  go  out  of  the 
city  of  Boston  without  shooting  a  gun,  then  he  won't  go  back. 
Now,  I  am  going  to  propose,,  that,  when  you  adjourn,  it  be  to  meet 
at  Court  Square  to-morrow  morning  at  nine  o'clock.  As  many 
as  are  in  favor  of  that  motion  will  raise  their  hands. 

Many  hands  were  raised ;  and  from  the  audience  arose 
shouts  of,  "  Let's  go  to-night.  Let's  pay  a  visit  to  the 
slave-catchers  at  the  Revere  House."  The  question  was 
put,  "Do  you  propose  to  go  to  the  Revere  House  to- 
night? Then,  show  your  hands.  It  is  not  a  vote. 
We  shall  meet  at  Court  Square  at  nine  o'clock  to-mor- 
row morning." 

At  this  point  in  the  history,  there  is  a  conflict  of  evi- 
dence. It  is  not  possible  to  determine  whether  Parker 
had  been  informed  of  the  new  plan,  and  waited  for  the 
signal  agreed  upon,  but,  thinking  it  was  not  given,  con- 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  175 

eluded  his  speech  as  just  quoted ;  or  whether,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  proposed  attack,  he  made  it  his  principal 
aim,  to  restrain  the  audience  from  rushing  away  into 
Court  Square.  There  were  indeed  cries  of  alarm  around 
the  doors;  but  those  on  the  platform,  supposing  them 
to  be  feints  only,  held  the  audience  within  the  hall. 

Before  the  meeting  adjourned,  —  quietly,  of  course, 
—  Dr.  Howe  left  the  hall,  and  hurried  to  Court  Square, 
to  see  whether  the  cries  which  he  had  heard  really 
meant  any  thing.  Upon  arriving  at  the  court-house, 
he  found  that  a  small-  attack  had  been  made ;  but  the 
doors  were  closed :  and  the  crowd,  if  such  it  was,  had 
gone.  If  we  suppose  the  signal  to  have  been  given  at 
Faneuil  Hall,  which  is  quite  improbable,  there  surely 
would  not  have  been  time  for  the  audience  to  make  its 
slow  way  to  the  square  in  season  to  be  of  any  service. 

Thus  the  affair  ended.  During  the  remainder  of  that 
night,  and  the  whole  of  the  next  day,  the  marines  and 
militia  held  the  streets,  and  guarded  the  court-house. 
The  slave  was  handed  over  to  his  master ;  and  on  Fri- 
day, the  2d  of  June,  he  was  marched  through  Court 
Street  and  State  Street  to  the  wharf,  in  the  centre  of 
a  hollow  square  of  armed  ruffians,  themselves  guarded 
by  companies  of  militia,  protected  by  cannon.  The 
bells-  of  the  city  tolled  a  solemn  dirge,  the  streets  were 
draped  in  black,  and  the  whole  scene  was  as  awful  as 
imagination  can  picture  it.  Those  who  witnessed  the 
spectacle  will  never,  never  forget  it. 


176        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

After  the  rendition  of  Burns,  indictments  were  found 
against  Theodore  Parker,  Wendell  Phillips,  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson,  Martin  Stowell,  John  Morrison,  Samuel  T. 
Proudman,  and  John  C.  Cluer.  They  were  defended 
by  John  P.  Hale,  Charles  M.  Ellis,  William  L.  Burt, 
John  A.  Andrew,  and  Henry  F.  Durant.  The  case  of 
Mr.  Stowell  was  first  taken  up.  After  proceeding  with 
the  arguments  for  quashing  the  indictment,  Judge 
Curtis  ordered  all  the  writs  to  be  quashed,  thus  dismiss- 
ing the  cases. 

The  contemptible  action  of  "Slave  Commissioner" 
Loring  excited  a  deep  feeling  of  disgust  and  dissatisfac- 
tion throughout  the  State.  On  account  of  it,  he  lost 
a  professorship  in  Harvard  College.  Petitions  signed 
by  several  thousand  names  were  then  sent  to  the  Legis- 
lature, praying  for  his  removal  from  his  office  as  judge 
of  probate.  The  subject  was  given  a  thorough  hearing 
and  examination.  At  this  hearing,  on  the  20th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1855,  appeared  for  the  petitioners,  Wendell 
Phillips.  His  argument  was  lengthy,  and  covered  all 
the  points  in  issue.  It  concluded  as  follows :  — 

"  Gentlemen,  the  petitioners  have  no  feeling  of  revenge  toward 
Mr.  Edward  G.  Loring.  Let  the  General  Government  reward  him 
with  thousands  if  it  will.  To  us  he  is  only  an  object  of  pity. 
There  was  an  hour  when  one  man  trembled  before  him,  —  when 
one  hapless  victim,  with  more  than  life  at  stake,  trembled  before 
this  man's  want  of  humanity,  and  ignorance  of  law.  That  hour 
has  passed  away.  To-day  he  is  but  a  weed  on  the  great  ocean  of 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  177 

humanity.  To  us  he  is  nothing :  but  we,  with  you,  are  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts ;  and  for  the  honor  of  the  State,  for 
the  sake  of  justice,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  we  claim  his  removal. 
We  have  a  right  to  a  judiciary  worthy  of  the  respect  of  the  com- 
munity. We  cannot  respect  him.  Do  not  give  us  a  man  whose 
judicial  character  is  made  up  of  party  bias,  personal  predilection, 
bad  law,  and  ,a  reckless  disregard  of  human  rights,  and  whose  heart 
was  too  hard  to  melt  before  the  mute  eloquence  of  a  hapless  and 
terrified  man!  Do  not  commit  to  such  a  one  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  the  commonwTealth !  Do  not  place  such  a  man  on  a 
bench  which  only  able  and  humane  and  Christian  men  have  occu- 
pied before !  Do  not  let  him  escape  the  deserved  indignation  of 
the  community,  by  the  technical  construction  of  a  statute!  The 
Constitution  has  left  you,  as  the  representatives  of  the  original 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  power  to  remove  a  judge  when  you 
think  he  has  lost  the  confidence  and  respect  of  his  constituents. 
Exercise  it!  Say  to  the  United  States,  'The  Constitution  allows 
the  return  of  fugitive  slaves.  Find  your  agents  where  you  will : 
you  shall  not  find  them  on  the  supreme  or  any  inferior  bench  of 
Massachusetts.  You  shall  never  gather  round  that  infamous  pro- 
cedure any  respectability  derived  from  the  magistracy  of  the  com- 
monwealth. If  it  is  to  be  done,  let  it  be  done  by  men  whom  it 
does  not  harm  the  honor  or  the  interest  of  Massachusetts  to  have 
dishonored  and  made  infamous  ! ' 

"Mr.  Chairman,  give  free  channel  to  the  natural  instincts  of 
the  commonwealth ;  and  let  us  —  let  us  be  at  liberty  to  despise  the 
slave-hunter,  without  feeling  that  our  children's  hopes  and  lives 
are  prejudiced  thereby !  When  you  have  done  it,  —  when  you  have 
pronounced  on  this  hasty,  reckless,  inhuman  court  its  proper  judg- 
ment, the  verdict  of  official  reprobation,  —  you  will  secure  another 
thing.  The  next  slave  commissioner  who  opens  his  court  will 
remember  that  he  opens  it  in  Massachusetts,  where  a  man  is  not 


178        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

to  be  robbed  of  his  rights  as  a  human  being,  merely  because  he  is 
black.  You  will  throw  around  the  unfortunate  victim  of  a  cruel 
law,  which  you  say  you  cannot  annul,  all  the  protection  that  Massa- 
chusetts incidentally  can.  And,  doing  this,  you  will  do  something 
to  prevent  seeing  another  such  sad  week  as  that  of  last  May  or 
June,  in  the  capital  of  the  commonwealth.  Although  you  cannot 
blot  out  this  wicked  clause  in  the  Constitution,  you  will  render  it 
impossible  that  any  but  reckless,  unprincipled,  and  shameless  men 
shall  aid  in  its  enforcement.  Such  men  cannot  long  uphold  a  law 
in  this  commonwealth. 

"The  petitioners  ask  both  these  things;  claiming  especially  to 
have  proved  that  you  can  do  this  work,  and  that,  if  you  love  justice 
or  mercy,  you  ought  to  do  it." 

The  committee  reported  an  address  to  the  governor 
in  favor  of  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners,  which  both  the 
House  and  the  Senate  adopted.  The  governor's  coun- 
cil also  approved  it,  but  Gov.  Gardner  refused  to  grant 
the  prayer.  After  the  inauguration  of  Gov.  Banks,  in 
1858,  a  similar  petition  was  presented,  which  resulted 
in  the  removal  of  Loring. 

By  the  passage,  in  1854,  of  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
Act,  a  vast  extent  of  territory  was  laid  open,  both  to 
free  and  servile  labor;  and  immigration  at  once  began 
to  set  in  from  the  North  and  South,  thus  bringing  free- 
dom and  slavery  hand  to  hand,  and  face  to  face.  In 
the  autumn  of  1855  confusion  reigned  in  the  territory. 
Outrages  of  almost  every  kind  were  committed;  and 
property,  belonging  in  the  most  part  to  the  free-State 
settlers,  was  destroyed.  In  the  spring  of  1856  a  bill 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   WAR.  179 

was  presented  in  Congress  "  for  the  admission  of  Kan- 
sas into  the  Union."  In  the  course  of  the  heated  dis- 
cussion which  followed,  Mr.  Sumner  made  his  celebrated 
speech  entitled  "  The  Crime  against  Kansas." 

It  created  an  intense  madness  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Southern  and  slaveholding  leaders.  "  Such  words  are 
damaging."  "  He  has  the  audacity  of  a  Danton."  "  He 
must  be  silenced."  Such  were  some  of  the  remarks  of 
the  Southern  chivalry. 

On  the  22d  of  May,  two  days  after  his  speech,  Mr. 
Sumner,  while  seated  at  his  desk  in  the  Senate  Chamber, 
engaged  in  writing,  and  after  the  Senate  had  adjourned, 
was  assaulted  and  beaten  to  the  floor  by  Preston  S. 
Brooks  of  South  Carolina.  The  senator  fell  forward, 
bleeding  and  insensible.  "  Do  you  want  the  pieces  of 
your  cane  ?  "  asked  a  page  of  the  Senate  of  the  cowardly 
ruffian.  "  Only  the  gold  head,"  was  the  response.  "  The 
next  time  kill  him,  Brooks,"  said  his  companion,  who 
stood  in  the  doorway  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand.  "  Come 
let  us  go  and  take  a  drink."  They  did  so. 

As  soon  as  the  news  reached  Boston,  a  meeting  was 
called  in  Faneuil  Hall.  "  We  must  stand  by  him,"  said 
Gov.  Gardner,  "  who  is'  the  representative  of  Massachu- 
setts, under  all  circumstances." 

In  the  presidential  election  of  1856  John  C.  Fremont, 
the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party,  was  defeated. 
James  Buchanan,  the  choice  of  the  Democratic  party, 
was  elected.  If  the  Democratic  victory  was  appalling, 


180        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  Republican  defeat  was  by  no  means  insignificant. 
The  signs  of  the  times  pointed  to  the  one  fact,  that 
Republican  thought  and  feeling  were  increasing.  Many 
influences  helped  to  swell  this  increase,  notably  the 
labors  of  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society  and  its  affil- 
iated associations.  The  members  of  this  society  were 
not  voters;  they  refrained  from  all  political  action; 
and  still,  they  were  workers,  and  their  work  told.  They 
were  the  bitterest  opponents  of  the  slave-power;  and 
their  weapons  —  the  priii ting-press,  orators,  public  meet- 
ings, and  conventions  —  were  such  as  not  even  the  slave- 
power  could  much  longer  resist.  The  band  of  heroes 
who  fought  and  fell  at  Thermopylae  are  not  more 
worthy  of  renown  than  the  band  of  noble  men  and 
women,  who,  by  thought  and  words  and  deeds,  exposed 
their  lives  to  the  perils  and  encroachments  of  the  slave 
autocracy  of  the  South. 

But  the  crowning  event  of  the  decade  was  yet  to 
happen.  The  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry  and  its  failure, 
the  capture,  trial,  conviction,  and  execution  of  John 
Brown  and  his  followers,  are  matters  which  have  passed 
into  history,  and  will  not-  soon  be  erased.  The  circum- 
stances of  this  affair  are  full  of  interest,  and  must  now 
be  related.  \ 

It  was  in  March,  1858,  that  Brown,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Theodore  Parker,  visited  Boston,  and  first  made 
known  the  plan  of  his  proposed  invasion  of  Virginia. 
He  found  ardent  sympathizers,  who  lost  no  time  in 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAE.  181 

raising  the  requisite  funds.  At  a  meeting  of  the  secret 
committee,  held  at  the  Revere  House  in  May,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  assault  should  be  deferred  till  the  spring 
of  1859.  After  leaving  Boston,  Brown  went  to  the 
Kennedy  farm  on  the  Maryland  side  of  the  Potomac,  — 
five  miles  from  Harper's  Ferry,  —  which  he  had  rented, 
and  which  he  now  made  his  rendezvous.  During  the 
summer  and  autumn,  recruits  came  to  him,  and  due 
preparations  were  made.  Just  before  the  assault  Fred- 
erick Douglass  visited  him,  and,  for  the  first  time,  learned 
of  Brown's  purpose  to  attack  Harper's  Ferry.  Vainly 
urging  him  to  join  the  enterprise,  Brown  said,  "  Go  with 
me,  Douglass.  I  don't  want  you  to  fight.  I  will  pro- 
tect you  with  my  life  ;  but  I  want  you  to  be  there  when 
the  bees  swarm,  and  help  put  them  into  the  hive." 
Brown  undoubtedly  believed  that  the  slaves  were  ready 
to  rise  on  their  masters,  would  fight  for  liberty,  and 
only  needed  a  leader  and  a  plan. 

On  the  16th  of  October,  1859,  in  the  evening,  Brown 
assembled  his  little  ^forces,  consisting  of  fourteen  white 
and  five  colored  men,  armed  and  equipped  for  war.  A 
little  after  ten  o'clock  they  entered  the  town,  took  pos- 
session of  the  United-States  armory  buildings,  stopped 
the  trains  of  the  railroad,  cut  the  telegraph-wires,  cap- 
tured a  number  of  the  citizens,  liberated  several  slaves, 
and  held  the  town  about  thirty  hours.  After  some 
fighting,  in  which  several  persons  were  killed  and 
wounded,  Brown  retired  to  the  engine-house,  where  he 


•  182        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

was  finally  overpowered  and  captured  by  a  detachment 
of  United-States  marines,  under  the  command  of  Col. 
Robert  E.  Lee,  afterwards  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Confederate  forces.  Brown  was  wounded  in  several 
places.  Eight  of  his  band,  including  two  of  his  sons, 
were  killed  or  mortally  wounded ;  six  were  captured ; 
and  five  made  their  escape. 

During  his  confinement  at  the  guard-house,  Brown 
was  visited  by  Gov.  Wise,  to  whom  he  frankly  stated 
the  motives  and  purposes  of  his  action.  To  others  he 
remarked,  "You  people  at  the  South  had  better  pre- 
pare yourselves  for  a  settlement  of  this  question,  which 
will  come  up  sooner  than  you  are  prepared  for  it." 

Brown  was  indicted  "  for  murder,  and  other  crimes," 
brought  to  trial,  convicted,  and,  on  the  2d  of  Novem- 
ber, was  sentenced  to  be  hung.  He  was  defended  by 
George  H.  Hoyt,  —  a  young  lawyer  of  Boston,  —  Sam- 
uel Chilton  of  Washington,  and  Henry  Griswold  of  Ohio. 
On  the  2d  of  December  the  last  act  in  this  drama  of 
blood  was  performed.  * 

Immediately  after  the  execution,  the  body  was  deliv- 
ered to  the  custody  of  friends,  and  was  carried  to  the 
North.  At  New  York,  Mr.  Phillips  joined  the  little 
cortege;  and  they  proceeded  rapidly  towards  North 
Elba.  They  buried  him  on  the  8th  with  services  as 
"  simple  and  unostentatious  as  were  the  character  and 
life  of  the  martyr  himself,  as  was,  too,  the  community 
in  which  he  had  lived,  and  for  which  he  had  labored." 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   WAR.  183 

Over  the  grave  of  the  dead,  Mr.  Phillips  could  not 
but  speak  eloquently,  and  with  such  pathetic  and  pointed 
utterances  as  the  event  would  suggest  to  one  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  objects  of  the  deceased. 

"What  lesson  shall  those  lips  teach  us?  [spoke  the  orator, 
closing  his  eulogy].  Before  that  still,  calm  brow  let  us  take  a 
new  baptism.  How  can  we  stand  here  without  a  fresh  and  utter 
consecration  ?  These  tears !  how  shall  we  dare  even  to  offer  con- 
solation ?  Only  lips  fresh  from  such  a  vow  have  the  right  to  min- 
gle their  words  with  your  tears.  We  envy  you  your  nearer  place 
to  these  martyred  children  of  God.  I  do  not  believe  slavery  will  go 
down  in  blood.  Ours  is  the  age  of  thought.  Hearts  are  stronger 
than  swords  That  last  fortnight !  How  sublime  its  lesson,  —  the 
Christian  one  of  conscience,  of  truth !  Virginia  is  weak,  because 
each  man's  heart  said  amen  to  John  Brown.  His  words,  —  they 
are  stronger,  even,  than  his  rifles.  These  crushed  a  State.  Those 
have  changed  the  thoughts  of  millions,  and  will  yet  crush  slavery 
Men  said,  *  Would  he  had  died  in  arms ! '  God  ordered  better,  and 
granted  to  him  and  the  slave  those  noble  prison-hours,  —  that 
single  hour  of  death ;  granted  him  a  higher  than  the  soldier's  place, 
—  that  of  teacher :  the  echoes  of  his  rifles  have  died  away  in  the 
hills ;  a  million  hearts  guard  his  words.  God  bless  this  roof !  make 
it  bless  us.  WTe  dare  not  say  bless  you,  children  of  this  home! 
you  stand  nearer  to  one  whose  lips  God  touched,  and  we  rather 
bend  for  your  blessing.  God  make  us  all  worthier  of  him  whose 
dust  we  lay  among  these  hills  he  loved !  Here  he  girded  himself, 
and  went  forth  to  battle.  Fuller  success  than  his  heart  ever 
dreamed  God  granted  him.  He  sleeps  in  the 'blessings  of  the 
crushed  and  the  poor ;  and  men  believe  more  firmly  in  virtue,  now 
that  such  a  man  has  lived.  Standing  here,  let  us  thank  God  for  a 
firmer  faith  and  fuller  hope." 


184        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Like  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  opponents  of  slavery  at 
that  time,  Mr.  Phillips  seemed  to  have  no  conception 
of  the  nature  of  the  conflict  itself,  or  of  the  forces  that 
would  be  needful  to  root  up  and  destroy  American 
slavery.  Even  John  Brown,  whose  methods  were  con- 
ceived in  folly,  was  a  better  prophet.  "I  do  not  be- 
lieve," said  Mr.  Phillips,  "slavery  will  go  down  in 
blood."  One  year  later  than  the  utterance  of  this 
assertion,  South  Carolina  passed  her  ordinances  of  se- 
cession, and  fired  the  train  which  ushered  in  the  civil 
war. 

Truthfully  has  it  been  written,  that  "whatever 
diversities  in  judgment,  or  errors  of  estimate,  there 
may  have  been,  Mr.  Phillips  did  not  err  when,  stand- 
ing by  the  open  grave  of  John  Brown,  he  said  that  his 
words  were  stronger  than  his  arms,  and  that,  while  the 
echoes  of  his  rifles  had  died  away  among  the  hills  of 
Virginia,  his  words  were  guarded  by  a  million  hearts. 
When,  a  few  months  later,  the  uprising  nation  sent 
forth  its  loyal  sons  to  battle,  his  brave,  humane,  and 
generous  utterances  were  kept  in  fresh  remembrance. 
The  'John  Brown  Song,' extemporized  in  Boston  Har- 
bor, and  sung  by  the  Massachusetts  Twelfth,  marching 
up  State  Street,  down  Broadway,  and  in  its  encamp- 
ment in  Pleasant  Valley,  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac, 
struck  responsive  chords  that  vibrated  through  the 
land.  Regiment  after  regiment,  army  after  army, 
caught  up  the  air;  and  in  the  camp,  on  the  march, 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  1S5 

and  on  the  battle-field,  brave  men  associated  the  body 
'mouldering  in  the  ground,'  and  the  'soul  still  march- 
ing on,'  of  the  heroic  old  man,  with  the  sacred  idea  for 
which  he  died,  and  for  which  they  were  fighting." : 

The  execution  gave  rise  to  signal  discussions  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  "  Slaughtered,"  wrote  Victor  Hugo, 
"  by  the  American  Republic,  the  crime  assumes  the  pro- 
portions of  the  nation  which  commits  it."  In  America, 
John  Brown  was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  The  press,  the 
pulpit,  and  the  platform  resounded  with  conflicting  dis- 
cussions. In  every  city  and  town  public  meetings  were 
held.  The  majority  of  people,  while  not  doubting  the 
honesty  and  good  intention  of  the  man,  condemned  his 
act :  these  same  people  also  regarded  slavery  as  "  wise, 
just,  and  benevolent,"  and  stigmatized  the  abolitionists 
as  "drunken  mutineers."  A  very  few,  including  the 
anti-slavery  people,  repudiated  John  Brown's  methods, 
saying  with  the  poet  Whittier,  — 

"  Perish  with  him  the  folly 

That  seeks  through  evil,  good ; 
Long  live  the  generous  purpose, 

Unstained  with  human  blood ! 
Not  the  raid  of  midnight  terror, 

But  the  thought  that  underlies ; 
Not  the  outlaw's  pride  of  daring, 

But  the  Christian  sacrifice." 

In  November,  on  the  day  before  Brown  received  ,his 

1  Henry  Wilson,  Else  and  Fall  of  the  Slave-power,  ii.  p.  600. 


186        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

sentence,  Mr.  Phillips  lectured  at  Henry  Ward  Beech- 
er's  church  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  on  "  The  Lesson  of  the 
Hour."  He  said, — 

"I  think  the  lesson  of  the  hour  is  insurrection.  [Sensation.] 
Insurrection  of  thought  always  precedes  the  insurrection  of  arms. 
The  last  twenty  years  have  been  an  insurrection  of  thought.  We 
seem  to  be  entering  on  a  new  phase  of  this  great  American  strug- 

gle." 

• 

Farther  on  he  said,  — 

"  I  said  the  lesson  of  the  hour  was  insurrection.  I  ought  not 
to  apply  that  word  to  John  Brown  of  Ossawattomie,  for  there  was 
no  insurrection  in  his  case.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  call  him  an 
insurgent.  .  .  .  But  John  Brown  violated  the  law.  Yes.  On 
yonder  desk  lie  the  inspired  words  of  men  who  died  violent  deaths 
for  breaking  the  laws  of  Rome.  Why  do  you  listen  to  them  so 
reverently  ?  Huss  and  Wickliffe  violated  laws :  why  honor  them  ? 
George  Washington,  had  he  been  caught  before  1783,  would  have 
died  on  the  gibbet  for  breaking  the  laws  of  his  sovereign.  Yet  I 
have  heard  that  man  praised  within  six  months.  Yes,  you  say, 
but  these  men  broke  bad  laws.  Just  so.  It  is  honorable,  then,  to 
break  bad  laws,  and  such  law-breaking  history  loves,  and  God 
blesses.  Who  says,  then,  that  slave-laws  are  not  ten  thousand 
times  worse  than  any  those  men  resisted?  Whatever  argument 
excuses  them,  makes  John  Brown  a  saint." 

The  following  interesting  reminiscence  is  furnished 
by  Mr.  Charles  W.  Slack :  — 

"  When  John  Brown  lay  in  the  Charlestown  (Va.)  prison,  await- 
ing execution,  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  organize  the  meeting  in  Tremont 
Temple  for  the  relief  of  his  impoverished  family.  The  gathering 
had  been  suggested  at  the  weekly  meeting  of  the  Parker  Frater* 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  187 

nity.  Mr.  Parker  was  then  sick  in  Europe.  John  A.  Andrew,  not 
then  governor,  said  he  would  preside.  Mr.  Emerson  accepted  my 
invitation  to  speak  for  the  literature  of  New  England,  Rev.  J.  M. 
Manning  for  the  Congregational  theology  held  by  John  Brown, 
Rev.  G.  H.  Hepworth  for  Unitarian  good  works,  and  Mr.  Phil- 
lips for  the  anti-slavery  cause,  in  whose  behalf  Brown  was  con- 
demned. The  meeting  was  held  on  a  Saturday  evening.  Mr. 
Manning,  in  accepting  a  participation,  apologized  in  advance  for  a 
possible  tardiness  in  being  present ;  as  he  should  try  to  finish  his 
next  day's  sermon  before  he  came.  Mr.  Hepworth  was  the  most 
confident  and  ready  adapter  of  himself  to  the  occasion,  despite  the 
conservative  quality  of  many  of  his  congregation,  —  and  the  only 
one  to  prevaricate  himself  out  of  the  meeting.  Every  thing  went 
well,  except  Hepworth's  self-condemnatory  letter,  saying  he  did  not 
understand  both  sides  of  the  question  could  be  considered  in  the  dis- 
cussion ;  which  drew  the  retort  from  Andrew,  that  he  was  not  aware 
that  there  were  two  sides  to  the  question  whether  or  not  John 
Brown's  family  should  starve.  Emerson  made  a  fine  address ;  and 
so  did  Andrew  and  Phillips,  of  course :  but  little  Manning,  with 
heroic  pluck  unusual  in  the  ministry  of  that  day,  put  the  crowning 
sheaf  on  the  occasion  by  claiming  to  represent  the  church  of  Sam 
Adams  and  Wendell  Phillips.  *  I  thought  I  might  not  get  here,'  he 
said ;  '  but  I  made  an  effort,  and  here  I  am  :  and  I  want  all  the 
world  to  know  that  I  am  not  afraid  to  ride  in  the  coach  when 
Wendell  Phillips  sits  on  the  box.'  " 

That  meeting  passed  off  without  disturbance  from 
outside  influences.  But  when,  about  a  month  later, 
Mr.  Phillips  and  other  friends  tried  to  raise  funds  for 
the  family  of  John  Brown  by  a  public  meeting  in  New 
York,  they  were  confronted  by  perhaps  the  fiercest  mob 
that  Phillips  ever  saw. 


188        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  following  reminiscence  of  Mr.  Hamilton  Willcox, 
of  Staten  Island,  illustrates  the  intense  bitterness  with 
which  the  advocates  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  were  in 
those  days  regarded  :  — 

"In  the  fall  of  1859  [says  Mr.  Willcox]  the  North-Shore  lec- 
ture committee,  which  for  some  time  maintained  a  yearly  course 
of  lectures  in  the  Park  Baptist  Church,  Port  Richmond,  resolved 
to  change  their  plan  from  having  the  discourses  given  by  residents 
of  the  Island,  to  the  'lyceum'  method  of  inviting  distinguished 
lecturers  from  abroad.  They  announced  a  course  including 
Horace  Greeley,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin,  and 
Wendell  Phillips.  The  topics  were  not  political,  but  literary." 

"  The  Richmond  County  Gazette  "  at  once  made  a 
vehement  attack  upon  Mr.  Phillips,  and  upon  the  lec- 
ture committee,  of  which  George  William  Curtis  was 
the  chairman,  for  inviting  a  fanatical  agitator  to  ad- 
dress an  audience,  although  upon  a  topic  remote  from 
the  political  dissensions  of  the  day.  The  mob  element 
echoed  the  sentiment  expressed  by  "  The  Gazette,"  and 
its  mutterings  were  openly  heard.  A  letter  written  by 
George  A.  Ward  of  New  Brighton  was  published  in 
"  The  Gazette,"  protesting  against  the  attitude  of  that 
newspaper  upon  the  subject.  "  The  Gazette  "  printed 
the  letter,  and  editorially  admitted  the  truth  of  part  of 
it,  but  repeated  its  objections  to  Phillips's  lecturing  on 
Staten  Island,  because,  among  other  grounds,  of  the 
dreadful  fact  that  "  woman's  rights  conventions  and 
like  assemblages  have  frqeuently  been  enlightened  by 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  189 

him."  Before  the  time  set  for  the  lecture  of  Mr. 
Phillips,  which  was  to  be  upon  the  subject,  "  The  Lost 
Arts,"  the  remarkable  Harper's  Ferry  episode  occurred, 
and  the  name  of  John  Brown  became  the  synonyme  of 
all  that  is  to  be  detested.  When,  therefore,  the  strong 
pro-slavery  element  of  Staten  Island  heard  that  Wen- 
dell Phillips  had  spoken,  at  meetings  held  in  Cooper 
Union,  New  York,  and  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 
to  raise  funds  for  Brown's  family,  words  on  Brown's 
saintly  qualities,  the  furious  wrath  of  the  baser  part  of 
the  pro-slavery  men  was  roused.  Placards  appeared 
along  the  North  Shore,  calling  on  the  people  to  prevent 
Phillips  being  heard  on  Staten  Island.  A  crowd  on 
a  North-Shore  boat  proposed  to  throw  overboard,  and 
drown,  George  William  Curtis,  chairman  of  the  offend- 
ing lecture  committee ;  and  it  was  stated  afterwards, 
that,  had  he  not  landed  at  New  Brighton  instead  of  at 
Snug  Harbor  as  usual,  he  would  have  been  in  great 
danger. 

Although  a  riot  was  imminent,  no  steps  were  taken 
by  the  sheriff  and  his  deputies  to  avert  it.  Accord- 
ingly, about  twenty  of  the  friends  of  Phillips  and  the 
cause  he  advocated  formed  themselves  into  a  guard  for 
the  purpose  of  defending  the  speaker  from  a  possible 
attack,  and  maintaining  the  peace. 

"Before  the  lecture,  in  the  early  evening  [says  Mr.  Willcox], 
Mr.  Corbett  and  his  friends  posted  themselves  at  the  church-gate. 
There  were  no  gas-lamps  in  the  streets  then,  and  the  light  was 


190        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

dim.  Nearly  every  man  who  entered  expected  a  bloody  riot,  and 
was  well  armed.  By  eight  o'clock  a  large  and  excited  assemblage 
occupied  the  road  and  sidewalk,  loudly  objecting  to  Phillips's 
speaking;  though  his  subject  was  not  politics.  Prominent  near 
the  gate  was  a  Virginian  named  J.  M.  C.  Loud.  This  worthy 
was  forward  in  denouncing  Phillips  as  'an  enemy  to  the  Union.' 
When  a  lady  drove  up,  Victor  LeGal  of  West  Brighton,  followed 
by  several  roughs,  rushed  to  her  carriage-door,  and  said,  '  I  advise 
you,  madam,  not  to  go  in :  there  is  going  to  be  trouble.' 

"  '  What  trouble,  sir?  '  said  she  calmly. 

"'Two  hundred  of  us,'  said  LeGal,  'have  sworn  to  tear  this 
man  from  the  desk,  and  plant  him  in  the  Jersey  marshes.' 

"  The  lady  looked  him  steadily  in  the  face,  and  replied,  — 

" '  I  don't  think  that  will  be  allowed,  sir.' 

"'Well,'  said  LeGal,  'if  you  know  you  have  force  enough  to 
prevent  it,  go  ahead  ! ' 

"  '  I  do  not  say  any  such  thing,'  answered  the  lady ;  '  but  this  is 
not  a  political  meeting.  I  have  come  to  hear  a  literary  lecture, 
and  I  think  there  will  be  decent  men  enough  here  to  check  any 
disturbance.' 

"  The  intrepidity  of  this  heroic  woman  abashed  the  crowd,  and, 
without  doubt,  discouraged  them  from  attempting  to  storm  the 
church  in  which  the  lecture  was  delivered.  It  was  afterward 
learned  that  LeGal  spoke  the  real  purpose  of  the  leaders  of  the 
gang,  who  meant  to  row  Mr.  Phillips  to  a  salt  marsh  whence  he 
could  not  escape,  and  leave  him  there,  to  be  drowned  by  the  rising 
tide  ere  daybreak. 

"  Mr.  Phillips  left  his  carriage  at  some  distance  from  the  church- 
door,  and,  wrapped  in  his  cloak,  went  forward  on  foot.  In  the  dim 
light  he  passed  unnoticed  through  the  multitude;  but,  just  as  he 
reached  the  gate,  a  rough,  who  had  doubtless  helped  to  disturb 
anti-slavery  meetings  in  New  York,  recognized  him.  Grasping 
his  shoulder,  the  fellow  shouted  to  the  populace,  — 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR    WAR.  191 

" '  Let  me  introduce  you  to  Wendell  Phillips ! ' 

"  The  ruffian  was  instantly  dragged  off,  and  Mr.  Phillips  entered 
unharmed. 

"  Mr.  Curtis,  who  evidently  apprehended  trouble  [the  narrator 
continues],  took  the  platform,  and  introduced  Mr.  Phillips,  who 
proceeded  to  deliver  his  address. 

"Voices  from  the  street  cried,  'Fetch  him  out!  Fetch  him 
out ! '  The  janitor  and  his  aid  closed  and  fastened  the  outer  door, 
and  Mr.  Phillips  proceeded  with  his  lecture.  Some  member  of 
the  mob  outside  took  a  ladder  to  a  window  on  the  south  side  of  the 
church,  and,  climbing  up,  pulled  the  blind  open.  Some  one  inside 
at  once  jerked  it  back,  and  fastened  it  shut.  This  made  a  loud 
noise  for  several  minutes.  The  assembly  all  looked  round,  but  sat 
still.  Mr.  Phillips  stopped,  and  stood  watching  the  matter,  till 
the  noise  ceased,  and  then  went  on  with  perfect  self-possession. 

"When  the  lecture  ended,  —  which  it  did  earlier  than  the  row- 
dies expected,  —  the  speaker,  instead  of  waiting  to  be  spoken  to  by 
his  hearers  as  usual,  stepped  at  once  to  the  pew  where  Mrs.  Shaw 
and  Mrs.  Curtis  sat,  and,  giving  an  arm  to  each,  joined  the  stream 
of  people  moving  out,  being  about  midway  of  the  line.  In  the 
midst  of  the  outgoing  congregation  he  passed  unnoticed  through 
the  mob,  and  walked  away.  When  all  the  audience  had  passed 
out,  Mr.  Shaw  in  a  hurried  manner  rushed  forth,  and  sprang  into 
his  carriage,  which  was  driven  quickly  off.  A  rabble  pursued  it, 
yelling,  cursing,  and  throwing  stones;  but,  when  they  had  gone 
some  distance,  a  friend  of  the  speaker  shouted, '  You're  too  late ! 
He's  not  in  there !  *  Mortified  and  discouraged,  the  mob  stopped 
the  chase,  and  dispersed." 

The  first  anniversary  of  Brown's  execution  was  re- 
membered in  Boston  by  a  public  meeting  proposed  to 
be  held  at  Tremont  Temple.  The  times  were  fraught 


192        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

with  danger.  The  South  was  on  the  eve  of  an  out- 
break. Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  elected  President. 
The  conservative  papers  were  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
idea  of  holding  a  public  meeting.  But  the  anti-slavery 
people  had  a  fixed  purpose ;  and  Joseph  Story  Fay, 
J.  Murray  Howe,  and  other  rioters,  by  taking  posses- 
sion of  the  hall,  made  that  purpose  successful. 

Finding  that  the  use  of  Tremont  Temple  was  denied 
to  them,  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  associates  were  forced  to 
look  elsewhere.  The  Joy-street  church  was  opened  to 
them. 

"There  [says  Mr.  Slack,  who  was  present  at  the  meeting] 
Phillips  spoke  with  regal  magnificence  and  dauntless  courage; 
while  the  court-way  beside  the  church,  and  the  street  in  front,  were 
filled  with  angry  and  yelling  Union-savers.  They  thought  Phillips 
could  not  emerge  without  passing  through  their  ranks,  and  they 
were  prepared  for  violence  towards  them.  But  there  was  a  rear 
passage-way,  very  narrow,  from  the  meeting-house  through  to  South 
Russell  Street ;  and  out  by  that  avenue,  single  file,  walked  Phillips 
and  his  friends,  and  thence  up  the  hill  to  Myrtle,  and  so  to  Joy, 
Street,  and  across  the  Common  to  Mr.  Phillips's  Essex-street  resi- 
dence. When  the  mob  heard  that  Mr.  Phillips  had  escaped,  they 
rushed  up  the  hill,  and  overtook  his  escort  just  as  it  had  descended 
the  stone  steps  leading  to  the  Beacon-street  mall.  They  found  a 
oordon  of  young  men,  forty  or  more  in  number,  who,  with  locked 
arms  and  closely  compacted  bodies,  had  Phillips  in  the  centre  of 
their  circle,  and  were  safely  bearing  him  home.  Timidity,  or  a 
conviction  that  an  assault  would  be  fruitless,  prompted  them  to 
take  satisfaction  at  the  discovery  only  in  yells  and  execration." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PHILLIPS  DURING  WAR-TIME. 

The  Outbreak  of  Rebellion. —Winter  of  1860-61.  — The  Fight  for 
Free  Speech  in  Boston. — The  Personal-Liberty  Act. — Status  of 
the  Press.  —  The  Virginia  Peace  Commission.  —  President  Lincoln 
inaugurated.  —  The  First  Gun.  —  The  Country  aroused.  —  Phillips 
at  New  Bedford.  — The  Call  for  Troops.  — The  Patriotism  of  the 
Press.  —  The  Memorable  April  Twenty-first.  —  A  Morning  Meeting 
in  State  Street.  —  Wendell  Phillips  in  Music  Hall.  — "Under  the 
Flag."  — State  Conventions.  —  The  Question  of  Slavery  ignored.  — 
The  Year  1862. —The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  —  Ratification 
Meeting.  — Phillips  favors  arming  the  Colored  Men.  —  The  "  July 
Riot." — Progress  of  the  War. — The  Thirteenth  Amendment. — 
Peace.  —  Return  of  Troops.  —  Woman  Suffrage.  —  Conventions  of 
1866-69. 

"  Civil  war  needs  momentous  and  Bolemn  justification.  I  think  that  the  history 
of  the  nation  and  of  the  government,  both,  is  an  ample  justification  to  our  own 
times  and  to  history  for  this  appeal  to  arms." 

"I  believe  in  the  possibility  of  justice,  in  the  certainty  of  union.  Years  hence, 
when  the  smoke  of  this  conflict  clears  away,  the  world  will  see  under  our  banner  all 
tongues,  all  creeds,  all  races,  —  one  brotherhood,  —  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac, 
the  genius  of  Liberty,  robed  in  light,  four  and  thirty  stars  for  her  diadem,  broken 
chains  under  her  feet,  and  an  olive-branch  in  her  right  hand." 

TN  his  valedictory  address,  delivered  on  the  3d  of 
IT:  January,  1861,  Gov.  Banks  alluded  to  one  topic 
which  had  a  direct  bearing  on  the  war  which  was  so 
soon  to  open.  The  Legislature  of  1858  had  passed  an 
Act  for  the  protection  of  personal  liberty,  which  was 

193 


194        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

intended  to  mitigate  the  harsh  provisions  of  the  Fugi- 
tive-slave Law.  Judge  Story  had  ruled  that  the  Con- 
stitution contemplated  the  existence  of  a  "positive, 
•unqualified  right  on  the  part  of  the  owner  of  a  slave, 
which  no  State  law  or  regulation  can  in  any  way  qual- 
ify, regulate,  control,  or  restrain." 

This  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  was  approved  by 
the  State  Legislature,  and  confirmed  by  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court.  Said  Gov.  Banks, — 

"It  is  not  my  purpose  to  defend  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Fugitive-slave  Act.  The  omission  of  a  provision  for  jury  trial, 
however  harsh  and  cruel,  cannot  in  any  event  be  supplied  by  State 
legislation.  While  I  am  constrained  to  doubt  the  right  of  this 
State  to  enact  such  laws,  I  do  not  admit,  that,  in  any  just  sense,  it 
is  a  violation  of  the  national  compact.  It  is  only  when  unconsti- 
tutional legislation  is  enforced  by  executive  authority  that  it  as- 
sumes that  character,  and  no  such  result  has  occurred  in  this  State. 
...  I  cannot  but  regard  the  maintenance  of  the  statute  —  al- 
though it  may  be  within  the  extremest  limits  of  constitutional 
power,  which  is  so  unnecessary  to  the  public  service,  and  so  detri- 
mental to  the  public  peace  —  as  an  inexcusable  public  wrong.  I 
hope  by  common  consent  it  may  be  removed  from  the  statute- 
book,  and  such  guaranties  as  individual  freedom  demands  be 
sought  in  new  legislation." 1 

In  the  election  of  1860,  there  were  four  gubernato- 
rial candidates  in  the  Massachusetts  field.  John  A. 

1  These  and  other  words  embraced  in  Gov.  Banks's  address  were 
made  prominent  pretexts  by  the  Disunion  party  to  justify  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union. 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAE-TIME.  195 

Andrew  of  Boston  was  the  candidate  of  the  Republi- 
can party,  Erasmus  D.  Beach  of  Springfield  of  the 
Douglas  wing  of  the  Democrats,  Amos  A.  Lawrence 
of  Boston  of  the  Conservatives,  and  Benjamin  F.  But- 
ler of  Lowell  of  the  Breckinridge  wing  of  the  Demo- 
crats. Mr.  Andrew  received  a  majority  over  all  the 
opposing  candidates  of  upward  of  thirty-nine  thousand 
votes.  The  eight  councillors  elected,  and  all  the  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  were  Republicans.  The  presidential 
electors  in  favor  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  of  Illi- 
nois, and  of  Mr.  Hamlin  of  Maine,  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  received  about 
the  same  majority  as  did  Mr.  Andrew  for  governor. 

The  winter  of  1860-61  was  one  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten. Party  feeling  ran  high,  and  ideas  clashed  some- 
times with  a  fury  which  seemed  to  know  no  bounds. 
At  the  most  critical  moments  Mr.  Phillips  was  always 
in  the  van.  His  courage  never  failed  him:  indeed, 
he  appeared  to  be  the  happiest  when  facing  extreme 
danger. 

Driven  out  of  Tremont  Temple,  the  standing-com- 
mittee of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  Society 
(Rev.  Theodore  Parker)  invited  Mr.  Phillips  to  speak 
on  Sunday,  Dec.  16,  1860,  from  their  pulpit  in  Music 
Hall. 

"The  society  [says  Mr.  Slack]  was  in  possession  of  the  hall 
Sunday  forenoons  by  a  written  lease  from  the  directors  of  the 
Music-hall  Association.  When  it  became  known  that  Mr.  Phil' 


196        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

lips  was  invited  to  that  pulpit,  the  directors  became  alarmed ;  and 
a  special  meeting  was  convened,  to  consider  their  duty  in  the  prem- 
ises. It  was  a  long  and  exciting  session,  lasting  till  midnight. 
A  majority  of  the  directors  were  disposed  to  revoke  the  lease,  and 
shut  up  the  hall.  The  standing-committee  of  the  society,  who 
were  in  attendance  at  the  hall,  threatened  a  suit  for  damages  if 
they  did.  The  directors  wanted  to  know  who  would  be  responsi- 
ble if  injury  were  done  to  the  hall  through  Mr.  Phillips's  presence. 
The  standing-committee  referred  them  to  the  mayor.  The  direct- 
ors shivered  like  a  mainsail  subjected  to  a  tack  of  the  craft.  The 
standing-committee,  conscious  they  had  law,  as  well  as  right,  on 
their  side,  were  firm  as  a  rock.  They  would  not  yield  a  jot  of 
their  possession.  John  P.  Putnam,  afterwards  judge,  of  the  di- 
rectors, was  their  friend  in  counsel  as  well  as  sympathy ;  and  he 
informed  his  colleagues,  that  the  position  of  the  standing-commit- 
tee wras  impregnable,  and  must  be  acknowledged,  whatever  came 
to  the  building.  It  was  something  after  midnight  before  word 
came  out  from  their  council,  that  the  directors  would  interpose  no 
objection  to  the  use  of  the  hall  the  next  forenoon  as  purposed. 
With  the  late  John  11.  Manley,  the  clerk  of  the  society,  I  carried 
the  decision  to  Mr.  Phillips,  who  was  up,  and  awaiting  the  result. 
He  said,  <  It  is  well !  I  will  be  ready ! '  We  left,  and  the  next 
morning  Music  Hall  saw  a  crowd  within  its  walls  never  exceeded 
since.  Mr.  Phillips  was  on  hand  in  due  course,  calm  as  nature  on 
a  spring  morning.  Whoever  heard  that  discourse  never  will  for- 
get it.  It  was,  from  beginning  to  end,  one  terrible  arraignment  of 
the  mob-spirit  in  America.  He  used  no  rose-water  flavor  in  de- 
scribing the  rioters  of  the  Tremont  Temple  gathering,  but  in  the 
most  scathing  language  made  personal  issue  with  the  well-known 
social  and  political  leaders  on  that  occasion.  As  he  poured  out 
his  blistering  anathemas,  I  sat  trembling  lest  I  should  hear  the 
snap  of  a  pistol  that  should  send  a  ball  into  his  glowing  and  pul- 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  197 

sating  form.  But  there  was  no  violence  attempted.  His  sympa- 
thizers fully  equalled  the  malecontents ;  and  the  mayor,  on  the 
appeal  of  the  directors  of  the  hall,  had  the  audience  interspersed 
with  policemen  in  plain  clothes.  When  the  services  were  over, 
and  Mr.  Phillips  withdrew  from  the  hall  by  the  Winter-street  en- 
trance, court  and  street  were  found  to  be  rilled  by  the  baffled  riot- 
ers ready  for  assault.  Just  then  two  sections  of  young  men, 
double  file,  took  Mr.  Phillips,  with  a  friend  on  each  side  of  him, 
between  them,  and  escorted  him  up  Washington  Street  to  his  resi- 
dence in  entire  safety.  This  escort  was  fully  armed,  and  it  would 
have  been  a  sad  day  for  the  mob  had  Mr.  Phillips  been  assaulted. 
For  nearly  a  week  after,  a  portion  of  these  young  men  remained 
on  duty  at  Mr.  Phillips's  house  for  his  protection. 

Gov.  Andrew  was  inaugurated  on  the  5th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1861 ;  and  in  his  address  he  reviewed  the  gloomy 
condition  of  the  country,  and  alluded  to  the  position 
which  Massachusetts  and  her  great  statesmen  had  al- 
ways held  in  regard  to  it. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  New-England  Anti-slavery 
Society  followed  the  next  month.  Again  was  the 
Tremont  Temple  invaded,  but  under  different  circum- 
stances. A  large  number  of  the  German-Turners  were 
present,  armed,  every  man  of  them,  with  the  purpose 
of  putting  an  end  to  whoever  dared  usurp  the  con- 
trol of  the  meeting.  The  body  of  the  house  was 
filled  with  ladies  and  gentlemen.  An  especial  effort 
was  made  to  have  the  ladies  —  in  contrast  to  the  John 
Brown  meeting,  which  was  composed  almost  exclu- 
sively of  men.  Indeed,  the  anti-slavery  ladies  always 


198        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

had  the  finest  courage ;  and,  where  danger  lurked,  they 
were  sure  to  be  present.  No  overt  act  of  violence  or 
usurpation  was  attempted,  but  the  result  of  breaking 
up  the  meeting  was  achieved  in  a  different  way.  Wher- 
ever the  mob  could  penetrate  on  the  sides  of  the  hall, 
in  the  aisles,  etc.,  both  below  and  in  the  gallery,  they 
did  so ;  and  by  groans,  shuffling  of  the  feet,  stamping, 
outcries,  etc.,  —  a  perfect  roar  of  bedlamite  noise,  — 
they  prevented  any  thing  being  heard  from  the  plat- 
form. Mayor  Wightman  had  the  hall  studded  with 
policemen,  but  with  orders  to  make  no  arrests  unless 
overt  acts  were  committed.  The  mob  knew  of  these 
orders,  and  hence  their  course  of  proceeding.  Finally 
the  mayor  ordered  the  closing  of  the  hall  for  the  pub- 
lic safety.  Phillips,  Garrison,  and  the  abolitionists, 
protested  in  vain.  Finally  Gov.  Andrew,  just  inaugu- 
rated, was  appealed  to,  to  lend  the  militia  or  a  police 
force ;  Mr.  Phillips  being  the  impassioned  orator.  Gov. 
Andrew,  while  sympathizing  with  the  anti-slavery  men, 
could  not  accede  to  their  wish,  —  first,  because  the  mili- 
tia could  not  be  ordered  out  without  a  request  from 
the  mayor,  which  he  was  not  disposed  to  make ;  and, 
second,  because  he  had  no  police-force  amenable  to  his 
order.  This  lack  led  to  the  subsequent  establishment 
of  the  State  constabulary,  and  the  occasion  gave  great 
momentum  to  the  cause  of  free  speech  on  the  part  of 
many  hitherto  conservative  about  abolitionism.  The 
war  was  nearly  on,  and  sagacious  men  saw  that  the 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAE-TIME.  199 

North  had  gone  far  enough.  The  Joy- street  church 
once  more  held  the  baffled  abolitionists ;  and  Wightman 
began  to  lose  favor,  and  was  retired  the  next  year. 
Two  additional  discourses  from  Music  Hall,  by  Mr. 
Phillips,  one  on  Jan.  20,  and  the  other  on  Feb.  17, 
added  still  further  to  the  excitement  of  the  hour. 

The  following  letter,  written  by  Lydia  Maria  Child, 
and  addressed  to  her  friend,  Mrs.  Shaw,  vividly  recalls 
some  of  these  scenes :  — 

MEDTORD,  January,  1861. 

"  Tired  in  mind  and  body,  I  sit  down  to  write  you,  and  tell  you 
all  about  it.  On  Wednesday  evening  I  went  to  Mrs.  Chapman's 
reception.  The  hall  inside  was  beautiful  with  light  and  banners; 
and,  outside,  the  street  was  beautiful  with  moonlight  and  prismatic 
icicles.  All  went  on  quietly:  people  walked  about,  and  talked, 
occasionally  enlivened  by  music  of  the  Germania  Band.  They 
seemed  to  enjoy  themselves,  and  I  (being  released  from  the  care 
of  unruly  boys,  demolishing  cake,  and  spilling  slops,  as  they  did 
last  year)  did  my  best  to  help  them  have  a  good  time.  But  what 
with  being  introduced  to  strangers,  and  chatting  with  old  ac- 
quaintances half  forgotten,  I  went  home  to  Derne  Street  very 
weary,  yet  found  it  impossible  for  me  to  sleep.  I  knew  there 
were  very  formidable  preparations  to  mob  the  anti-slavery  meeting 
the  next  day,  and  that  the  mayor  was  avowedly  on  the  side  of 
the  mob.  I  would  rather  have  given  fifty  dollars  than  attend  the 
meeting,  but  conscience  told  me  it  was  a  duty.  I  was  excited 
and  anxious,  not  for  myself,  but  for  Wendell  Phillips.  Hour 
after  hour  of  the  night  I  heard  the  clock  strike,  while  visions  were 
passing  through  my  mind  of  that  noble  head  assailed  by  murder- 
ous hands,  and  I  obliged  to  stand  by  without  the  power  to  sare 
him. 


200        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"I  went  very  early  in  the  morning,  and  entered  the  Tremont 
Temple  by  a  private  labyrinthine  passage.  There  I  found  a  com- 
pany of  young  men,  a  portion  of  the  self -constituted  body-guard 
of  Mr.  Phillips.  They  looked  calm,  but  resolute  and  stern.  I 
knew  they  were  all  armed,  as  well  as  hundreds  of  others ;  but  their 
weapons  were  not  visible.  The  women  friends  came  in  gradually 
by  the  same  private  passage.  It  was  a  solemn  gathering,  I  assure 
you ;  for  though  there  was  a  pledge  not  to  use  weapons  unless  Mr. 
Phillips  or  some  other  anti-slavery  speaker  was  personally  in  dan- 
ger, still  nobody  could  foresee  what  might  happen.  The  meeting 
opened  well.  The  anti-slavery  sentiment  was  there  in  strong 
force,  but  soon  the  mob  began  to  yell  from  the  galleries.  They 
came  tumbling  in  by  hundreds.  The  papers  will  tell  you  of  their 
goings  on.  Such  yelling,  screeching,  stamping,  and  bellowing  I 
never  heard.  It  was  a  full  realization  of  the  old  phrase,  '  All  hell 
broke  loose.' 

"  Mr.  Phillips  stood  on  the  front  of  the  platform  for  a  full  hour, 
trying  to  be  heard  whenever  the  storm  lulled  a  little.  They  cried, 
'  Throw  him  out ! '  '  Throw  a  brick-bat  at  him ! '  '  Your  house  is 
a-fire :  don't  you  know  your  house  is  a-fire  ?  Go  put  out  your 
house.'  Then  they'd  sing,  with  various  bellowing  and  shrieking 
accompaniments,  *  Tell  John  Andrew,  tell  John  Andrew,  John 
Brown's  dead ! '  I  should  think  there  were  four  or  five  hundred  of 
them.  At  one  time  they  all  rose  up,  many  of  them  clattered 
down-stairs,  and  there  was  a  surging  forward  toward  the  platform. 
My  heart  beat  so  fast  I  could  hear  it ;  for  I  did  not  then  know  how 
Mr.  Phillips's  armed  friends  were  stationed  at  every  door,  and  in 
the  middle  of  every  aisle.  They  formed  a  firm  wall,  which  the 
mob  could  not  pass.  At  last  it  was  announced  that  the  police 
were  coming.  I  saw  and  heard  nothing  of  them,  but  there  was  a 
lull.  Mr.  Phillips  tried  to  speak,  but  his  voice  was  again  drowned. 
Then,  by  a  clever  stroke  of  management,  he  stooped  forward,  and 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  201 

addressed  his  speech  to  the  reporters  stationed  directly  below  him. 
This  tantalized  the  mob;  and  they  began  to  call  out,  'Speak 
louder !  we  want  to  hear  what  you're  saying ; '  whereupon  he  raised 
his  voice,  and  for  half  an  hour  he  seemed  to  hold  them  in  the  hol- 
low of  his  hand.  But,  as  soon  as  he  sat  down,  they  began  to  yell 
and  sing  again,  to  prevent  any  more  speaking.  But  Higginson 
made  himself  heard  through  the  storm,  and  spoke  in  very  manly 
and  effective  style ;  the  purport  of  which  was,  that  to-day  he  would 
set  aside  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  take  his  stand  upon  the  right 
of  free  speech,  which  the  members  of  this  society  were  determined 
to  maintain  at  every  hazard.  I  forgot  to  mention  that  Wendell 
Phillips  was  preceded  by  James  Freeman  Clarke,  whom  the  mob 
treated  with  such  boisterous  insults  that  he  was  often  obliged  to 
pause  in  his  remarks.  After  Mr.  Phillips,  R.  W.  Emerson  tried 
to  address  the  people;  but  his  voice  was  completely  drowned. 
After  the  meeting  adjourned,  a  large  mob  outside  waited  for  Mr. 
Phillips;  but  he  went  out  by  the  private  entrance,  and  arrived 
home  safely. 

"  In  the  afternoon  meeting  the  uproar  was  greater  than  it  had 
been  in  the  forenoon.  The  mob  cheered  and  hurrahed  for  the 
Union,  and  for  Edward  Everett,  for  Mayor  Wightman,  and  for 
Charles  Francis  Adams.  The  mayor  came  at  last,  and,  mounting 
the  platform,  informed  his  '  fellow-citizens '  in  the  galleries,  that 
the  trustees  of  the  building  had  requested  him  to  disperse  the 
meeting,  and  close  the  hall.  Turning  the  meeting  out-of-doors 
was  precisely  what  they  wanted  him  to  do." 

The  purport  of  the  remainder  of  this  letter  was, 
that,  on  the  mayor's  complying  with  the  demand  that 
he  should  read  the  letter  aloud  to  the  meeting,  it  ap- 
peared that  the  trustees  had  desired  him  to  disperse 
the  mob,  and  not  the  meeting.  Mr.  Edmund  Quincy, 


202        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  presiding  officer,  thereupon  called  upon  the  mayor 
to  fulfil  his  duty,  and  eject  the  mob  from  the  hall, 
which  was  done  within  ten  minutes,  to  the  intense  cha- 
grin of  the  rioters,  and  the  discomfiture  of  the  mayor ; 
and  the  meeting  proceeded  without  further  interrup- 
tion. Mayor  Wightman,  on  leaving  the  hall,  promised 
that  an  adequate  force  of  police  should  be  sent  to  pro- 
tect the  evening  meeting ;  and  he  then  returned  to  the 
City  Hall,  to  issue  an  order  that  the  hall  should  be 
closed,  and  no  meeting  permitted  there  that  evening. 
These  events  took  place  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Society,  on  the  24th  of 
January,  1861.1 

In  January  the  Personal-liberty  Bill  came  before  a 
committee  of  the  Legislature.  This  committee  met  in 
a  small  room  in  the  State  House,  to  discuss  the  bill- 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  report  against  it,  for  it 
had  been  the  policy  of  some  of  the  frightened  "  Union 
savers  "  in  other  States  to  repeal  this  bill.  Mr.  Phillips 
and  other  anti-slavery  people,  on  being  informed  of  this 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  committee,  crowded  into 
the  committee-room,  and  nearly  filled  it.  Mr.  Phillips 
and  others  made  stirring  speeches,  and  demanded  a 
public  hearing,  which  was  granted.  On  the  1st  of 
February  the  first  number  of  "  The  Tocsin,"  a  cam- 
paign newspaper,  appeared.  Elizur  Wright,  F.  W. 

i  See  Letters  of  Lydia  Maria  Child,  p.  147. 


PHILLIPS  DUEING    WAR-TIME.  203 

Bird,  F.  B.  Sanborn,  and  William  S.  Robinson  contrib- 
uted articles  for  its  columns.  Its  prospectus  declared 
it  to  be  "published  by  an  association  of  Republicans 
who  are  in  earnest,  and  who  will  be  heard."  Its  motto 
was,  "  No  compromise  with  slavery."  The  six  numbers 
which  appeared  contained  articles  against  the  repeal 
of  the  Personal-liberty  Bill,  in  favor  of  radical  anti- 
slavery  measures,  and  denouncing  the  Virginia  peace 
commission. 

Virginia  had  called  upon  all  States  who  wanted  to 
adjust  the  slavery  question,  to  send  four  commissioners 
to  that  State,  to  confer  on  the  subject.  A  meeting  was 
held  in  February,  on  State  Street,  Boston,  at  which 
many  bankers  and  brokers  were  present.  A  committee 
of  four  representative  persons  was  chosen,  to  instruct 
the  Legislature  to  respond  to  this  call.  Very  properly, 
the  Legislature  took  no  notice  of  this  interference ;  but 
finally  an  order  passed  its  branches,  and  seven  commis- 
sioners were  appointed.  Many  of  the  Republicans 
were  opposed  to  this  commission,  and  so  was  Gov. 
Andrew  at  first;  but  he  "afterwards  caved  in,  as  he 
did  on  the  Personal-liberty  Bill." 

At  this  time,  the  only  anti-slavery  paper  of  political 
value  published  in  Boston  was  "  The  Bee ; "  but  such 
short-lived  campaign  sheets  as  "  The  Straight  Republi- 
can," "The  Tocsin,"  and  afterwards  "The  Reveille," 
did  a  good  work  of  their  kind.  All  of  the  other  papers 
advocated  a  timid  policy,  and  did  not  heartily  support 


204        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the    new    abolition    governor    and    President.      The 
Hunker  and  Doughface  element  was  in  the  ascendant. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  witnessed  the  departure  of  the  old,  and  the  ad- 
vent of  the  new,  administration,  in  the  midst  of  pend- 
ing serious  national  calamities.  On  that  day  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  inaugurated  as  President  of  the  national 
government.  Although  rumors  of  revolt,  of  assassina- 
tion, and  of  a  destruction  of  the  Capitol,  were  rife,  the 
solemn  and  impressive  ceremonies  were  completed  with- 
out disaster  or  crime.  In  his  inaugural  address,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  said,  — 

"  In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in 
mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  government  will 
not  assail  you :  you  can  have  no  conflict  without  yourselves  being 
the  aggressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy 
the  government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  '  pre- 
serve, protect,  and  defend  it.'" 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  o'bliged  to  go  secretly  to  Wash- 
ington in  February:  five  States  had  seceded,  and  the 
Southern  Confederacy  had  chosen  Jefferson  Davis  for 
its  president. 

Events  crowded  upon  one  another  with  rapid  succes- 
sion. On  the  13th  of  April  came  the  tidings  that  Fort 
Sumter  had  fallen.  The  news  went  like  a  thunderbolt 
through  the  land.  The  martial  spirit  of  the  nation 
was  aroused.  Law,  order,  peace,  the  foundations  of 
the  republic,  had  been  outraged ;  and  never  did  British 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  205 

blood  or  Celtic  ire  leap  quicker  at  an  insult  offered  to 
their  nation's  honor  than  did  the  American  spring  to 
redeem  his  flag  from  this  deep  disgrace.  In  view  of 
the  myrmidons  of  rebellion  belching  their  fires  upon 
the  cherished  institutions  of  the  Union,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  strike  in 
return.  There  was  no  cause,  no  time,  for  deliberation. 
From  the  south  to  the  north,  from  the  east  to  the  west, 
went  the  cry,  To  arms !  Then  followed  a  proclama- 
tion, calling  forth  seventy-five  thousand  of  the  militia 
of  the  several  States ;  Congress  was  ordered  to  assem- 
ble on  the  Fourth  of  July;  the  ports  of  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Texas,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  —  the  seceded 
States,  —  were  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  blockade. 

At  last  the  war  had  begun.  No  party  throughout 
the  country  was  more  astonished  than  was  the  aboli- 
tion party,  whose  hatred  of  slavery  was  chronic,  whose 
martyr  spirit  was  felt  and  acknowledged,  whose  policy 
was  aggressive, — a  party  which  made  no  compromises, 
which  sought  no  offices,  which  asked  no  favors,  and 
which  gave  no  quarter.  As  we  have  seen,  this  party 
had  interpreted  the  Constitution  as  a  pro-slavery  instru- 
ment, the  Union  as  "  a  covenant  with  hell."  Up  to  the 
very  day  when  the  secessionists  fired  upon  Sumter,  the 
party  had  thus  spoken,  and  had  shown  consistency  in 
all  their  acts. 

But  earnest  men  are  not  always  reliable  prophets. 


206        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

On  the  evening  of  the  9th  of  April,  1861,  Mr.  Phillips 
delivered  a  speech  at  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  from  which 
we  select  the  following  curious  and  remarkable  pas- 
sages :  — 

"  The  telegraph  [said  Mr.  Phillips]  is  said  to  report  to-night, 
that  the  guns  are  firing,  either  out  of  Fort  Sumter,  or  into  it ;  that 
to-morrow's  breeze,  when  it  sweeps  from  the  North,  will  bring  to 
us  the  echo  of  the  first  Lexington  battle  of  the  new  Revolution. 
Well,  what  shall  we  say  of  such  an  hour  ?  My  own  feeling  is  a 
double  one.  It  is  like  the  triumph  of  sadness,  —  rejoicing  and 
sorrow.  I  cannot,  indeed,  congratulate  you  enough  on  the  sublime 
spectacle  of  twenty  millions  of  people  educated  in  a  twelvemonth 
up  to  being  willing  that  their  idolized  Union  should  risk  a  battle, 
should  risk  dissolution,  in  order,  at  any  risk,  to  put  down  this 
rebellion  of  slave  States. 

"  But  I  am  sorry  tliat  a  gun  should  be  fired  at  Fort  Sumter,  or 
that  a  gun  should  be  fired  from  it,  for  this  reason :  The  Adminis- 
tration at  Washington  does  not  know  its  time.  Here  are  a  series 
of  States  girding  the  Gulf,  who  think  that  their  peculiar  institu- 
tions require  that  they  should  have  a  separate  government.  They 
have  a  right  to  decide  that  question,  without  appealing  to  you  or 
me.  A  large  body  of  people,  sufficient  to  make  a  nation,  have 
come  to  the  conclusion,  that  they  will  have  a  government  of  a  cer- 
tain form.  Who  denies  them  the  right?  Standing  with  the 
principles  of  '76  behind  us,  who  can  deny  them  the  right  ?  What 
is  a  matter  of  a  few  millions  of  dollars,  or  a  few  forts?  It  is  a 
mere  drop  in  the  bucket  of  the  great  national  question.  It  is 
theirs,  just  as  much  as  ours.  I  maintain,  on  the  principles  of  76, 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  has  no  right  to  a  soldier  in  Fort  Sumter. 

"  But  the  question  comes,  secondly,  '  Suppose  we  had  a  right  to 
interfere,  what  is  the  good  of  it  ?  '  You  may  punish  South  Caro- 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  207 

lina  for  going  out  of  the  Union  :  that  does  not  bring  her  in.  You 
may  subdue  her  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  armies,  but  that  does 
not  make  her  a  State.  There  is  no  longer  a  Union :  it  is  nothing 
but  boy's  play.  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  is  angry,  and  Mr.  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  mad  ;  and  they  agree  to  fight.  One,  two,  or  three  years 
hence,  if  the  news  of  the  afternoon  is  correct,  we  shall  have  gone 
through  a  war,  spent  millions,  required  the  death  of  a  hundred 
thousand  men,  and  be  exactly  then  where  we  are  now,  —  two 
nations,  a  little  more  angry,  a  little  poorer,  and  a  great  deal  wiser ; 
and  that  will  be  the  only  difference :  we  may  just  as  well  settle  it 
now  as  then. 

"You  cannot  go  through  Massachusetts,  and  recruit  men  to 
bombard  Charleston  or  New  Orleans.  The  Northern  mind  will 
not  bear  it :  you  can  never  make  such  a  war  popular.  The  first 
onset  may  be  borne ;  the  telegraph  may  bring  us  news,  that  Ander- 
son has  bombarded  Charleston,  and  you  may  rejoice ;  but  the  sober 
second  thought  of  Massachusetts  will  be,  '  wasteful,  unchristian, 
guilty.'  The  North  never  will  indorse  such  a  war.  Instead  of 
conquering  Charleston,  you  create  a  Charleston  in  New  England, 
you  stir  up  sympathy  for  the  South.  Therefore  it  seems  to  me, 
that  the  inauguration  of  war  is  not  a  violation  of  principle,  but  it 
is  a  violation  of  expediency. 

"  To  be  for  disunion,  in  Boston,  is  to  be  an  abolitionist :  to  be 
against  disunion  is  to  be  an  abolitionist  to-day  in  the  streets  of 
Charleston.  Now,  that  very  state  of  things  shows  that  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  two  cities  is  utterly  antagonistic.  What  is  the  use  of 
trying  to  join  them?  Is  Abraham  Lincoln  capable  of  making  fire 
and  powder  lie  down  together  in  peace  ?  If  he  can,  let  him  send 
his  army  to  Fort  Sumter,  and  occupy  it. 

"  But  understand  me :  I  believe  in  the  Union,  exactly  as  you  do, 
in  the  future.  This  is  my  proposition  :  *  Go  out,  gentlemen :  you 
are  welcome  to  your  empire ;  take  it.'  Let  them  try  the  experi- 


208        LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

ment  of  cheating  with  one  hand,  and  idleness  with  the  other.  I 
know  that  God  has  written  bankruptcy  over  such  an  experiment. 
If  you  cannonade  South  Carolina,  you  cannonade  her  into  the 
sympathy  of  the  world.  I  do  not  know  now  but  what  a  majority 
there  is  on  my  side ;  but  I  know  this,  if  the  telegraph  speaks  true 
to-night,  that  the  guns  are  echoing  around  Fort  Sumter,  that  a 
majority  is  against  us  ;  for  it  will  convert  every  man  into  a  seces- 
sionist. Besides,  there  is  another  fearful  element  in  the  problem ; 
there  is  another  terrible  consideration :  we  can  then  no  longer 
extend  to  the  black  race,  at  the  South,  our  best  sympathy  and  our 
best  aid. 

"  We  stand  to-night  at  the  beginning  of  an  epoch,  which  may 
have  the  peace  or  the  ruin  of  a  generation  in  its  bosom.  Inaugu- 
rate war,  we  know  not  where  it  will  end :  we  are  in  no  condition 
to  fighti  The  South  is  poor,  and  we  are  rich.  The  poor  man  can 
do  twice  the  injury  to  the  rich  man,  that  the  rich  man  can  do  to  the 
poor.  Your  wealth  rides  safely  on  the  bosom  of  the  ocean,  and 
New  England  has  its  millions  afloat.  The  North  whitens  every 
sea  with  its  wealth.  The  South  has  no  commerce,  but  she  can 
buy  the  privateers  of  every  race  to  prey  on  yours.  It  is  a  danger- 
ous strife  when  wealth  quarrels  with  poverty. 

"  Driven  to  despair,  the  Southern  States  may  be  poor  and  bank- 
rupt ;  but  the  poorest  man  can  be  a  pirate :  and,  as  long  as  New 
England's  tonnage  is  a  third  of  that  of  the  civilized  world,  the 
South  can  punish  New  England  more  than  New  England  can  pun- 
ish her.  We  provoke  a  strife  in  which  we  are  defenceless.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  we  hold  ourselves  to  the  strife  of  ideas,  if  we  manifest 
that  strength  which  despises  insult,  and  bides  its  hour,  we  are  sure 
to  conquer  in  the  end. 

"  I  distrust  these  guns  at  Fort  Sumter.  I  do  not  believe  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  means  war.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  madness  of 
the  Cabinet.  Nothing  but  madness  can  provoke  war  with  the 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  209 

Gulf  States.  My  suspicion  is  this  :  that  the  Administration  dares 
not  compromise.  It  trembles  before  the  five  hundred  thousand 
readers  of  'The  New- York  Tribune.' 

"  But  there  is  a  safe  way  to  compromise.  It  is  this :  seem  to 
provoke  war.  Cannonade  the  forts.  What  will  be  the  first  result? 
New- York  commerce  is  pale  with  bankruptcy.  The  affrighted  sea- 
board sees  grass  growing  in  its  streets.  It  will  start  up  every  man 
whose  livelihood  hangs  upon  trade,  intensifying  him  into  a  com- 
promiser. Those  guns  fired  at  Fort  Sumter  are  only  to  frighten 
the  North  into  a  compromise. 

"  If  the  Administration  provokes  bloodshed,  it  is  a  trick,  — 
nothing  else.  It  is  the  masterly  cunning  of  the  devil  of  compro- 
mise, the  Secretary  of  State.  He  is  not  mad  enough  to  let  these 
States  run  into  battle.  He  knows  that  the  age  of  bullets  is  over. 
If  a  gun  is  fired  in  Southern  waters,  it  is  fired  at  the  wharves  of 
New  York,  at  the  bank-vaults  of  Boston,  at  the  money  of  the 
North.  It  is  meant  to  alarm.  It  is  policy,  not  sincerity.  It  means 
concession ;  and,  in  twelve  months,  you  will  see  this  Union  recon- 
structed, with  a  constitution  like  that  of  Montgomery. 

"  New  England  may,  indeed,  never  be  coerced  into  a  slave  con- 
federacy. But  when  the  battles  of  Abraham  Lincoln  are  ended, 
and  compromises  worse  than  Crittenden's  are  adopted,  New  Eng- 
land may  claim  the  right  to  secede.  And,  as  sure  as  a  gun  is  fired 
to-night  at  Fort  Sumter,  within  three  years  from  to-day  you  will 
see  thirty  States  gathered  under  a  Constitution  twice  as  damnable 
as  that  of  1787.  The  only  hope  of  liberty  is  fidelity  to  principle, 
fidelity  to  peace,  fidelity  to  the  slave.  Out  of  that,  God  gives  us 
nothing  but  hope  and  brightness.  In  blood,  there  is  sure  to  be  ruin." 

The  lecture  "  was  interrupted  by  frequent  hisses." 
On  the  15th  of  April  Gov.  Andrew  received  a  tele- 
gram from  Washington,  urging  him  to  send  forward  at 


210        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

once  fifteen  hundred  men.  The  drum-beat  of  the  long 
roll  had  been  struck.  On  the  morning  of  the  16th,  vol- 
unteers began  to  arrive  in  Boston.  The  first  to  reach 
the  capital  were  the  three  companies  of  the  Eighth 
Regiment,  belonging  to  Marblehead,  commanded  by 
Capts.  Martin,  Phillips,  and  Boardman,  On  the  same 
day  the  Fifth  Regiment  was  ordered  to  report,  and 
on  the  17th  Brig.-Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  detailed 
to  command  the  troops  at  six  o'clock  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  16th.  The  Third,  Fourth,  and  Sixth  Regiments 
were  ready  to  start.  Meanwhile  new  companies  were 
being  raised  in  all  parts  of  the  State. 

As  if  by  magic,  the  entire  character  of  the  State  was 
changed;  from  a  peaceful,  industrious  community,  it 
became  a  camp  of  armed  men ;  and  the  hum  of  labor 
gave  place  to  the  notes  of  fife  and  drum.  And,  amid 
the  excitement  that  everywhere  prevailed,  men  and 
women  were  anxious  to  do  something,  and  in  some  way 
to  be  useful.  Hundreds  of  the  wealthier  citizens  of 
Massachusetts  pledged  pecuniary  aid  to  soldiers'  fami- 
lies. The  Boston  banks  offered  to  loan  the  State  three 
million  six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  without  security ; 
while  other  banks  in  the  State  manifested  similar  liber- 
ality. Gentlemen  of  the  learned  professions  tendered 
their  services,  while  ladies  of  every  rank  in  life  showed 
their  willingness  to  minister  to  the  sick  and  wounded 
men  in  the  hospitals. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  were  deeply  moved  by 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAR-TIME.  211 

the  departure  of  the  three-months'  men,  and  the  attack 
made  upon  the  Sixth  Regiment  in  the  streets  of  Balti- 
more. Meetings  were  held  in  city  and  town.  Speeches 
were  made  by  the  most  distinguished  orators  of  the  day. 
In  some  of  the  towns  the  people  were  called  together 
by  the  ringing  of  church-bells,  and  in  others  by  the 
public  crier. 

The  newspapers  of  the  Commonwealth  spoke  with 
one  voice.  Party  spirit  was  allayed:  political  differ- 
ences were  forgotten.  The  past  was  buried  with  the 
past.  "The  Boston  Post,"  the  leading  Democratic 
newspaper  of  New  England,  published,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  April  16,  the  following  patriotic  appeal  to  the 
people :  — 

"  Patriotic  citizens  1  choose  you  which  you  will  serve,  —  the 
world's  best  hope,  —  our  noble  Republican  Government,  —  or  that 
bottomless  pit,  —  social  anarchy.  Adjourn  other  issues  until  this 
self-preserving  issue  is  settled.  Hitherto  a  good  Providence  has 
smiled  upon  the  American  Union.  This  was  the  morning  star  that 
led  on  the  men  of  the  Revolution.  It  is  precisely  the  truth  to  say, 
that,  when  those  sages  and  heroes  labored,  they  made  UNION  the 
vital  condition  of  their  labor.  It  was  faith  in  Union  that 
destroyed  the  tea,  and  thus  nerved  the  resistance  to  British  aggres- 
sion. Without  it,  patriots  felt  they  were  nothing;  and  with  it 
they  felt  equal  to  all  things.  The  Union  flag  they  transmitted  to 
their  posterity.  To-day  it  waves  over  those  who  are  rallying  under 
the  standard  of  the  LAW  ;  and  God  grant,  that  in  the  end,  as  it 
was  with  the  old  Mother  Country,  after  wars  between  White  and 
Red  Roses  and  Roundheads  and  Cavaliers,  so  it  may  be  with  the 


212        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

daughter;   that  she  may  see  PEACE  in  her  borders,  and  all  her 
children  loving  each  other  better  than  ever  1 " 

"  The  Liberator  "  spoke  with  equal  spirit  in  support 
of  the  government;  and  the  religious  press,  without 
exception,  invoked  the  blessing  of  Heaven  upon  our 
soldiers,  and  the  holy  cause  they  had  gone  forth  to  up- 
hold. 

On  Sunday  morning,  April  21,  an  immense  meeting 
was  held  in  State  Street,  in  front  of  the  Merchants' 
Exchange.  It  had  been  announced  in  the  newspapers 
of  the  preceding  day,  that  Fletcher  Webster  —  the  sole 
surviving  child  of  Daniel  Webster  —  and  other  gentle- 
men would  speak.  Mr.  Webster  began  his  address  from 
the  steps  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange.  The  position 
was  unfavorable :  the  crowd  could  not  hear,  and  calls 
were  made  to  adjourn  to  the  rear  of  the  old  State  House. 
The  adjournment  was  carried.  The  crowd  remained  in 
the  street ;  and  Mr.  Webster  spoke  from  the  rear  bal- 
cony, facing  State  Street. 

In  the  afternoon  Wendell  Phillips  delivered  an  ad- 
dress in  the  great  Music  Hall,  which  was  crowded  in 
every  part.  Thousands  were  unable  to  gain  admission. 
Many  persons  were  afraid  that  he  would  not  be  permit- 
ted to  speak,  and  that  if  he  attempted  to  sustain  the 
position  which  he  assumed  in  his  speech  at  New  Bed- 
ford, ten  days  before,  a  riot  would  be  the  result.  The 
first  sentence  uttered  by  Mr.  Phillips,  however,  gave 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  213 

assurance  that  the  events  of  the  preceding  week  had 
not  been  without  their  effect  upon  his  mind.  He  began 
by  saying,  — 

"  Many  times  this  winter,  here  and  elsewhere,  I  have  counselled 
peace,  —  urged,  as  well  as  I  knew  how,  the  expediency  of  acknowl- 
edging a  Southern  Confederacy,  and  the  peaceful  separation  of 
these  thirty-four  States.  One  of  the  journals  announces  to  you 
that  I  coine  here  this  morning  to  retract  those  opinions.  No,  not 
one  of  them!  [Applause.]  I  need  them  all,  —  every  word  I 
have  spoken  this  winter,  —  every  act  of  twenty-five  years  of  my 
life,  to  make  the  welcome  I  give  this  war  hearty  and  hot.  Civil 
war  is  a  momentous  evil.  It  needs  the  soundest,  most  solemn, 
justification.  I  rejoice  before  God  to-day  for  every  word  that  I 
have  spoken  counselling  peace ;  but  I  rejoice  also,  with  an  espe- 
cially profound  gratitude,  that  now,  the  first  time  in  my  anti- 
slavery  life,  I  speak  under  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  welcome  the 
tread  of  Massachusetts  men  marshalled  for  war.  [Enthusiastic 
cheering.]  No  matter  what  the  past  has  been  or  said,  to-day  the 
slave  asks  God  for  a  sight  of  this  banner,  and  counts  it  the  pledge 
of  his  redemption.  [Applause.]  Hitherto  it  may  have  meant 
what  you  thought,  or  what  I  did :  to-day  it  represents  sovereignty 
and  justice.  [Renewed  applause.]  The  only  mistake  that  I  have 
made,  was  in  supposing  Massachusetts  wholly  choked  with  cotton- 
dust,  and  cankered  with  gold.  [Loud  cheering.]  The  South 
thought  her  patience,  and  generous  willingness  for  peace,  were 
cowardice :  to-day  shows  the  mistake.  She  has  been  sleeping  on 
her  arms  since  '83,  and  the  first  cannon-shot  brings  her  to  her  feet 
.with  the  war-cry  of  the  Revolution  on  her  lips.  [Loud  cheers.] 
Any  man  who  loves  either  liberty  or  manhood  must  rejoice  at 
such  an  hour.  [Applause.] 

"  Let  me  tell  you  the  path  by  which  I,  at  least,  have  trod  my 


214        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

way  up  to  this  conclusion.  I  do  not  acknowledge  the  motto,  in 
its  full  significance,  '  Our  country,  right  or  wrong.'  If  you  let 
it  trespass  on  the  domain  of  morals,  it  is  knavish.  But  there  is 
a  full,  broad  sphere  for  loyalty;  and  no  war-cry  ever  stirred  a 
generous  people  that  had  not  in  it  much  of  truth  and  right.  It 
is  sublime,  this  rally  of  a  great  people  to  the  defence  of  what 
they  think  their  national  honor!  A  'noble  and  puissant  nation 
rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  from  sleep,  and  shaking  her 
invincible  locks.'  Just  now  we  saw  her  'reposing,  peaceful  and 
motionless ;  but,  at  the  call  of  patriotism,  she  ruffles,  as  it  were, 
her  swelling  plumage,  collects  her  scattered  elements  of  strength, 
and  awakens  her  dormant  thunders.' 

"  But  how  do  we  justify  this  last  appeal  to  the  God  of  battles  ? 
Let  me  tell  you  how  I  do.  I  have  always  believed  in  the  sincerity 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  You  have  heard  me  express  my  confidence 
in  it  every  time  I  have  spoken  from  this  desk.  I  only  doubted 
sometimes  whether  he  were  really  the  head  pf  the  government. 
To-day  he  is  at  any  rate  commander-in-chief. 

"  The  delay  in  the  action  of  government  has  doubtless  been 
necessity,  but  policy  also.  Traitors  within  and  without  made  it 
hesitate  to  move  till  it  had  tried  the  machine  of  government  just 
given  it.  But  delay  was  wise ;  as  it  matured  a  public  opinion 
definite,  decisive,  and  ready  to  keep  step  to  the  music  of  the 
government  march.  The  very  postponement  of  another  session 
of  Congress  till  July  4  plainly  invites  discussion,  —  evidently 
contemplates  the  ripening  of  public  opinion  in  the  interval. 
Fairly  to  examine  public  affairs,  and  prepare  a  community  wise 
to  co-operate  with  the  government,  is  the  duty  of  every  pulpit 
and  every  press. 

"  Plain  words,  therefore,  now,  before  the  nation  goes  mad  with 
excitement,  is  every  man's  duty.  Every  public  meeting  in  Athens 
was  opened  with  a  curse  on  any  one  who  should  not  speak  what 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAE-TIME.  215 

he  really  thought.  « I  have  never  defiled  my  conscience  from  fear 
or  favor  to  my  superiors,'  was  part  of  the  oath  every  Egyptian 
soul  was  supposed  to  utter  in  the  Judgment-Hall  of  Osiris,  be- 
fore admission  to  heaven.  Let  us  show  to-day  a  Christian  spirit 
as  sincere  and  fearless.  No  mobs  in  this  hour  of  victory,  to 
silence  those  whom  events  have  not  converted.  We  are  strong 
enough  to  tolerate  dissent.  That  flag  which  floats  over  press  or 
mansion  at  the  bidding  of  a  mob,  disgraces  both  victor  and 
victim. 

"  All  winter  long  I  have  acted  with  that  party  which  cried  for 
peace.  The  anti-slavery  enterprise  to  which  I  belong  started  with 
peace  written  on  its  banner.  We  imagined  that  the  age  of  bullets 
was  over  ;  that  the  age  of  ideas  had  come  ;  that  thirty  millions  of 
people  were  able  to  take  a  great  question,  and  decide  it  by  the 
conflict  of  opinions ;  that,  without  letting  the  ship  of  state  foun- 
der, we  could  lift  four  millions  of  men  into  Liberty  and  Justice. 
We  thought,  that  if  your  statesmen  would  throw  away  personal 
ambition  and  party  watchwords,  and  devote  themselves  to  the 
great  issue,  this  might  be  accomplished.  To  a  certain  extent  it 
has  been.  The  North  has  answered  to  the  call.  Year  after  year, 
event  by  event,  has  indicated  the  rising  education  of  the  people, 
—  the  readiness  for  a  Higher  moral  life,  the  calm,  self-poised  con- 
fidence in  our  own  convictions  that  patiently  waits  —  like  master 
for  a  pupil  —  for  a  neighbor's  conversion.  The  North  has  re- 
sponded to  the  call  of  that  peaceful,  moral,  intellectual  agitation 
which  the  anti-slavery  idea  has  initiated.  Our  mistake,  if  any, 
has  been,  that  we  counted  too  much  on  the  intelligence  of  the 
masses,  on  the  honesty  and  wisdom  of  statesmen  as  a  class.  Per- 
haps we  did  not  give  weight  enough  to  the  fact  we  saw,  that  this 
nation  is  made  up  of  different  ages,  —  not  homogeneous,  but  a 
mixed  mass  of  different  centuries.  The  North  thinks,  —  can 
appreciate  argument, — is  the  nineteenth  century,  —  hardly  any 


216        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

struggle  left  in  it  but  that  between  the  working-class  and  the 
money-kings.  The  South  dreams,  —  it  is  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth century,  —  baron  and  serf,  —  noble  and  slave.  Jack  Cade 
and  Wat  Tyler  loom  over  its  horizon ;  and  the  serf,  rising,  calls 
for  another  Thierry  to  record  his  struggle.  There  the  fagot  still 
burns  which  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  called,  ages  ago,  '  the 
best  light  to  guide  the  erring.'  There  men  are  tortured  for  opin- 
ions, the  only  punishment  the  Jesuits  were  willing  their  pupils 
should  look  on.  This  is,  perhaps,  too  flattering  a  picture  of  the 
South.  Better  call  her,  as  Sumner  does,  'the  Barbarous  States.' 
Our  struggle,  therefore,  is  between  barbarism  and  civilization. 
Such  can  only  be  settled  by  arms.  [Prolonged  cheering.]  /The 
government  has  waited  until  its  best  friends  almost  suspected  its 
courage  or  its  integrity,  but  the  cannon-shot  against  Fort  Sumter 
has  opened  the  only  door  out  of  this  hour.  There  were  but  two. 
One  was  compromise  :  the  other  was  battle.  The  integrity  of  the 
North  closed  the  first :  the  generous  forbearance  of  nineteen  States 
closed  the  other.  The  South  opened  this  with  cannon-shot,  and 
Lincoln  shows  himself  at  the  door.)  [Prolonged  and  enthusiastic 
cheering.]  The  war,  then,  is  not  aggressive,  but  in  self-defence; 
and  Washington  has  become  the  Thermopylae  of  Liberty  and 
Justice.  [Applause.]  Rather  than  surrender  that  capital,  cover 
every  square  foot  of  it  with  a  living  body  [loud  cheers]  :  crowd 
it  with  a  million  of  men,  and  empty  every  bank-vault  at  the 
North  to  pay  the  cost.  [Renewed  cheering.]  Teach  tfie  world 
once  for  all,  that  North  America  belongs  to  the  stars  and  stripes, 
and  under  them  no  man  shall  wear  a  chain.  [Enthusiastic  cheer- 
ing.] In  the  whole  of  this  conflict,  I  have  looked  only  at  Liberty, 
—  only  at  the  slave.  Perry  entered  the  battle  of  the  Lakes  with 

*  DON'T  GIVE  UP  THE  SHIP!'  floating  from  the  mast-head  of  the 

*  Lawrence.'     When  with   his   fighting-flag  he   left  her  crippled, 
heading  north,  and,  mounting  the  deck  of  the  « Niagara,'  turned 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAE-TIME.  217 

her  bows  due  west,  he  did  all  for  one  and  the  same  purpose,  — 
to  rake  the  decks  of  the  foe.  Steer  north  or  west,  acknowledge 
secession  or  cannonade  it,  I  care  not  which  ;  but,  *  Proclaim  liberty 
throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof.'  [Loud 
cheers.] 

The  speech  was  remarkable,  not  only  for  its  force  and 
vigor,  its  patriotic  and  elevated  sentiments,  but  for  its 
strong  contrast  with  the  speech  which  we  have  pre- 
viously quoted. 

Mr.  Slack's  recollections  of  this  eventful  afternoon 
are  interesting.  He  said,  — 

"  The  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  was  soon  to  come.  Less  than 
three  months  after  the  breaking-up  of  the  January  meeting,  Sumter 
was  fired  upon.  This  was  Friday,  April  12, 1861.  On  Sunday  week 
following,  Mr.  Phillips  was  again  invited  to  the  Music-hall  pulpit, 
but  under  what  differing  circumstances !  The  Union  flag  had  been 
fired  upon ;  our  national  sovereignty  was  at  stake ;  the  President 
had  called  for  volunteers  to  put  down  the  rebellion.  The  divorce 
between  slavery  and  the  government  was  at  hand !  The  standing- 
committee  had  the  spirit  of  all  the  free  North.  They  dressed 
their  pulpit  in  the  national  colors.  Over  the  occupant's  head  was 
an  arch  of  bunting,  decked  with  laurel  and  evergreen.  Thousands 
crowded  into  the  hall.  Mr.  Phillips  was  promptly  on  hand,  with 
—  for  the  first  time  in  his  public  career — an  audience  wholly  in 
sympathy  with  his  expected  speech.  The  atmosphere  was  charged 
with  patriotism.  Men's  faces,  especially  those  of  the  old  abolition- 
ists, were  aglow  with  a  confident  hope.  Again  was  Mr.  Phillips 
equal  to  the  occasion !  He  welcomed  the  national  outbreak  as  the 
sure  precursor  of  the  death  of  human  slavery  in  republican 
America.  He  built  up  his  magnificent  expectancy  of  the  results 


218        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

of  the  war,  sentence  by  sentence,  thrilling  the  audience  with  grand 
and  noble  aspiration.  He  yielded,  in  the  furnace  of  his  patriotic 
and  humane  warmth,  all  his  old-time  predilections,  and  stood,  dis- 
inthralled,  for  the  Union  and  the  flag,  the  Constitution  of  the 
fathers,  and  its  future  interpretation  in  the  interest  of  liberty  on 
this  continent.  How  the  audience  applauded !  How  they  cheered ! 
The  men  who  were  there  to  mob  him  three  months  before,  now 
were  his  strongest  indorsers.  They  crowded  the  platform  to  con- 
gratulate him  when  he  closed,  and  joy  and  satisfaction  beamed  on 
every  countenance.  It  had  been  a  Pentecostal  season ;  and  the 
divine  outflow  of  humanity,  justice,  and  the  rights  of  man,  had 
baptized  every  one  of  that  immense  throng !  It  required  no  pha- 
lanx of  armed  men  to  escort  Mr.  Phillips  home  that  day ;  for  he 
was  almost,  figuratively,  borne  in  the  arms  of  a  grateful  citizenship 
to  his  modest  abode ! " 

Mr.  Phillips's  address  (now  published  in  the  collected 
edition  of  his  works)  was  thoroughly  reported  by  Mr. 
Yerrington  for  the  "Boston  Journal,"  and  the  other 
papers  also  had  it  in  type.  Before  the  papers  went  to 
press,  a  committee  of  prudential  friends  of  the  govern- 
ment caused  the  speech  to  be  suppressed,  for  fear  of 
losing  the  support  of  the  War  Democrats :  but,  on  the 
fact  becoming  known,  the  friends  of  Mr.  Phillips  had 
the  speech  issued  as  an  extra  to  the  "  Anglo-African  " 
paper,  and  circulated  on  the  street-corners ;  and  over  a 
hundred  thousand  copies  were  disposed  of. 

The  people  in  the  State  were  a  unit  in  support  of  the 
war.  The  officers  and  men  of  the  regiments  were  com- 
posed of  all  parties ;  and,  in  the  selection  of  men  to  be 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  219 

commissioned,  politics  were  never  regarded.  It  was 
the  desire  of  a  large  portion  of  the  Republican  party, 
that,  in  the  nomination  of  State  officers,  representative 
men  of  both  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
should  be  placed  upon  the  ticket. 

The  Republican  convention  met  at  Worcester  on 
the  1st  of  October,  and  renominated  Mr.  Andrew  for 
the  governorship.  The  marked  feature  of  the  conven- 
tion was  a  speech  of  Charles  Sumner,  which  as  it  openly 
advocated  proclaiming  freedom  to  the  slaves,  and  using 
colored  men  as  soldiers  in  the  armies  of  the  Union, 
gave  great  offence  to  the  convention,  and  to  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  the  State.  The  criticisms  on  this  speech 
which  appeared  in  the  press  at  the  time,  show  very 
plainly  that  the  Republican  party  of  Massachusetts  did 
not  favor  the  abolition  of,  or  any  interference  with, 
slavery.  Three  days  after  the  convention  was  held, 
"  The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,"  in  a  leading  editorial, 
remarked,  — 

"  The  convention  certainly  disavowed  any  intention  of  indors- 
ing the  fatal  doctrines  announced  by  Mr.  Sumner,  with  a  distinct- 
ness that  can  hardly  be  flattering  to  that  gentleman's  conception 
of  his  own  influence  in  Massachusetts.  The  resolutions  offered 
by  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  as  a  crucial  test  of  the  readiness 
of  the  convention  to  adopt  open  abolitionism  as  its  creed,  went  to 
the  table,  and  were  buried,  never  to  rise." 

Farther  on  it  said,  — 

"  It  may  not  appear  so  to  Mr.  Sumner  and  his  supporters,  and  it 


220        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

may  be  forgotten  by  some  who  oppose  him,  but  we  hold  it  for  an 
incontestable  truth,  that  neither  men  nor  money  will  be  forthcom- 
ing for  this  war  if  once  the  people  are  impressed  with  the  belief, 
that  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  not  the  defence  of  the  Union,  is 
its  object,  or  that  its  original  purpose  is  converted  into  a  cloak  for 
some  new  design  of  seizing  this  opportunity  for  the  destruction  of 
the  social  system  of  the  South.  The  people  are  heart  and  soul 
with  the  government  in  support  of  any  Constitutional  undertaking. 
We  do  not  believe  that  they  will  follow  it  if  they  are  made  to 
suspect  that  they  are  being  decoyed  into  the  support  of  any  un- 
constitutional and  revolutionary  designs." 

The  Democratic  convention,  which  met  at  Worcester, 
on  the  18th  of  September,  nominated  a  ticket  composed 
of  "  War  Democrats."  All  of  the  speakers  condemned 
the  rebellion,  and  favored  "  conquering  a  peace."  At 
the  election  in  November,  the  entire  Republican  ticket 
was  chosen. 

Meanwhile  the  war  was  progressing.  During  the 
year  1862,  events  thickened  fast ;  but  as  yet  there  were 
no  decisive  results.  The  Union  armies  had  met  the 
enemy  on  many  battle-fields :  alternate  victory  and  de- 
feat had  marked  the  contest.  Notwithstanding  that 
the  days  were  dark  and  gloomy,  the  loyal  people  of  the 
North  were  learning  many  lessons.  The  administra- 
tion, as  well  as  the  people,  had  been  educated  to  an 
anti-slavery  point. 

On  the  22d  of  September,  1862,  the  President  issued 
his  proclamation  of  freedom  to  the  enslaved,  to  take 
effect  on  the  first  day  of  the  new  year.  "  Africa  was 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAE-TIME.  221 

carried  into  the  war."  The  black  man  was  made  a  sol- 
dier, with  a  musket  in  his  hand,  and  on  his  body  the 
uniform  of  a  loyal  volunteer. 

On  Sunday,  Jan.  4,  1863,  Mr.  Phillips  spoke  to  a 
crowded  audience  in  the  Boston  Music  Hall,  upon  the 
President's  Proclamation.  He  took  the  occasion  to 
note  the  great  progress  which  the  cause  of  freedom 
had  made  during  the  two  years  preceding,  and  the  en- 
couraging indications  of  the  triumph  of  justice,  to 
which,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  the  nation  was  rapidly 
marching  on.  Mr.  Phillips  accepted  the  Proclamation 
as  a  step  in  the  progress  of  the  work ;  although  he  did 
not  admit  that  it  gave  all  that  was  desired,  or  which 
even  the  exigency  of  the  war  demanded.  From  his 
summing  up  of  the  situation,  and  his  eloquent  closing 
paragraph,  the  following  is  quoted :  — 

"  I  know  what  men  say  about  our  President's  omitting  Tennes- 
see from  his  list  of  rebel  States,  and  sparing  certain  Louisiana  dis- 
tricts. No  matter :  he  is  only  stopping  on  the  edge  of  Niagara,  to 
pick  up  and  save  a  few  chips.  He  and  they  will  go  over  together. 
I  know  also  the  threats  of  the  Democratic  party,  —  the  party  of 
re-action.  But  they  will  not  save  any  more  chips  than  he.  The 
mighty  current  is  too  strong  for  any  reluctance  of  individuals,  or 
mad  ambition  of  desperate  parties.  Saints  and  sinners,  we  are  all 
borne  onward;  and,  even  if  some  eddy  or  close  nook  of  a  few 
years  may  delay  our  progress,  the  result  is  certain.  God's  hand 
has  launched  the  nation  on  a  voyage  whose  only  port  is  Liberty. 
Neither  the  reluctance  of  the  captain,  nor  the  mutiny  of  the  cabin- 
boys,  will  matter  much.  And  this  is  why  I,  once  a  Pisunionist, 


222        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

cling  to  the  Union.  Once  it  had  neither  the  right  nor  the  wish  to 
interfere  with  slavery.  Then  we  sought  to  break  it.  That  Sum- 
ter  cannon  gave  it  the  right,  —  the  right  of  war.  Every  day  since 
has  ripened  the  ivish.  A  blundering  and  corrupt  cabinet  has 
made  it  at  last  an  inevitable  necessity,  —  Liberty  or  Death  !  The 
cowardice  of  Webster's  followers  in  the  cabinet  has  turned  his 
empty  rhetoric  into  solemn  truth ;  and  now  honest  men  are  not 
only  at  liberty,  but  bound,  to  live  and  die  under  his  motto,  —  $  Lib- 
erty and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable.*1  \ 

"  But,  after  all,  what  is  the  President's  Proclamation  to  us  ? 
Nothing  but  a  step  in  the  progress  of  a  people,  rich,  prosperous, 
independent,  in  spite  of  the  world.  But  let  me  open  for  you  the 
huts  of  three  million  of  slaves,  and  what  is  that  Proclamation 
there  ?  It  is  the  sunlight,  scattering  the  despair  of  centuries.  It 
is  a  voice  like  that  of  God,  that  gives  the  slave  the  right  to  work 
and  to  walk,  the  right  to  child  and  to  wife.  It  is  a  word  that 
makes  the  prayers  of  the  poor  and  the  victim  the  corner-stones  of 
the  Republic.  Other  nations  since  Greece  have  built  their  nation- 
ality on  a  Thermopylae,  or  a  great  name,  —  a  victory,  or  a  knightly 
family.  Our  corner-stone,  thank  God!  is  the  blessings  of  the 
poor.  Our  flag  floats  in  the  prayers  of  four  millions,. who  recog- 
nize it  as  the  pledge  of  their  freedom.  The  hut  of  the  Carolinas! 
They  may  curse  that  paper  in  ceiled  houses,  but  the  blessings  of 
the  poor  bear  it  up  to  the  throne  of  God.  Our  flag  floats  in  the 
thanksgiving  of  the  slave.  I  know  it  will  succeed.  Such  a  breeze 
never  wafted  a  banner  to  defeat.  The  old  slave,  who  sought  the 
*  Kingfisher '  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  thirty  miles  from  the  shore, 
in  a  wretched  skiff  of  boards,  rudely  nailed  together,  when  the 
commander  asked  him,  'Why!  didn't  you  know  that  a  breath 
would  have  sent  you  to  the  bottom  ?  '  said,  *  Lor',  massa,  God  Al- 
mighty never  brought  me  down  here  to  send  me  to  the  bottom/ 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  223 

So,  God  never  brought  the  Union  of  1787  to  the  height  of  that 
act,  to  sunder  it  in  pieces  !  "    [Enthusiastic  applause.] 

"  <  Thou,  too,  sail  on,  O  Ship  of  State ! 
Sail  on,  O  UNION,  strong  and  great ! 

Sail  on,  nor  fear  to  breast  the  sea ! 
Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  are  all  with  thee, 
Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 
Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears, 
Are  all  with  thee,  —  are  all  with  thee ! ' " 

[Loud  and  prolonged  applause.] 

There  is  no  part  of  the  military  history  of  Massachu- 
setts of  greater  interest  than  the  part  which  relates 
to  the  recruiting  and  organization  of  the  colored  regi- 
ments, which  went  forth  to  battle  for  the  freedom  of 
the  race.  Wendell  Phillips  was  one  of  the  first  to 
favor  such  a  movement,  and  on  every  possible  occasion 
he  urged  its  practicability.  Authority  was  received 
from  the  secretary  of  war,  by  an  order  dated  Jan.  26, 
1863,  to  raise  a  colored  regiment  in  Massachusetts. 
The  first  authority  given  by  the  governor  to  any  per- 
son, to  recruit  colored  men  in  the  State,  was  dated  Feb. 
7 ;  and  the  regiment  was  filled  to  the  maximum  by  May 
14.  Before  its  organization  was  completed,  so  many 
colored  men  were  anxious  to  enlist,  that  it  was  decided 
to  raise  another  regiment.  These-  two  regiments  were 
called  the  Fifty-fourth  and  the  Fifty-fifth.  Capt.  Rob- 
ert G.  Shaw,  of  the  Second  Regiment  Massachusetts 


224        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   1VENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

Infantry,  was  designated  as  colonel,  and  Capt.  Edward 
N.  Hallowell,  of  the  Twentieth  Regiment,  as  lieuten- 
ant-colonel of  the  Fifty-fourth. 

It  was  a  pathetic  sight  to  see  this  regiment  march 
through  the  streets  of  Boston.  Three  hundred  of 
them,  it  was  said,  were  fugitive  slaves.  They  had  a 
cowed  look,  as  if  used  to  beseeching:  they  did  not 
gaze  among  the  throngs  which  filled  the  sidewalks, 
with  the  eager,  hungry  gaze  of  the  white  soldier,  as  if 
in  search  of  a  friendly  face.  Poor  fellows !  many  of 
them  had  never  known  a  friend.  But  here  and  there  a 
colored  woman,  with  proud  and  joyful  look,  walked  by 
the  side  of  her  soldier.  History  has  kept  the  record  of 
how  well  they  fought,  and  how  nobly  they  died,  for 
their  country. 

It  seemed  to  many  that  "God  was  ready  for  the 
Union  armies  to  be  victorious,"  since  the  "  iron-skin  " 
brigade  had  hardly  begun  to  fight  when  victory  was 
achieved.  Grant  advanced ;  Meade  forced  Lee  back 
into  Virginia  ;  and  the  cry,  "  On  to  Richmond !  "  began 
to  sound  in  earnest.  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson 
surrendered,  and  all  was  no  longer  "quiet  on  the 
Potomac."  Says  one  who  lived  through  these  never- 
to-be-forgotten  scenes,  — 

"  The  South  grew  poorer  as  the  Xorth  became  richer  and  more 
prosperous.  Confederate  scrip  was  given  by  the  peck  for  a  gold 
dollar;  while  money  was  plenty  at  the  Xorth,  with  gold  at  2.25. 
Fortunes  were  made  every  day,  and  "  shoddy  "  began  to  be  a  sig- 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  225 

nificant  word.  , The  soldier  sent  home  his  pay;  and  families  that 
before  the  war  had  only  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  now  revelled 
in  luxury.  While  at  the  South,  almost  every  man  and  boy  was  a 
conscript,  our  quota  was  filled  without  a  second  draft ;  and  — 

"  We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred  thousand  more," 

was  sung  in  every  town  and  city  at  the  North.  Many  a  young 
man,  trained  from  his  cradle  in  anti-slavery  principles,  enlisted  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  "getting  one  good  lick  at  slavery."  The  peo- 
ple were  right  at  last,  and  led  the  dominant  party  along  the  line  of 
freedom.  Even  the  conservative  portion,  who  had  so  long  ob- 
jected to  the  needed  medicine,  were  now  willing,  as  it  was  coarsely 
expressed,  to  "  swallow  the  negro." 

The  happiest  man  in  Boston  was  Wendell  Phillips ; 
for  at  last  he  saw  the  day  breaking  upon  the  colored 
race,  and  heard  the  shackles  falling  from  their  op- 
pressed souls.  Slavery  Had,  indeed,  become  a  sin  of 
the  past.1 

On  the  llth  and  12th  of  March  of  this  year,  Mr. 
Phillips  delivered  his  noble  panegyric  on  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  Although 
prepared  some  years  before,  and  adjudged  "only  a 
sketch  "  by  its  author,  a  more  remarkable  condensation 

1  "  You  remember  Charles  Sprague's  description  of  scenes  he  wit- 
nessed from  a  window  near  State  Street  ?  First,  Garrison  dragged 
through  the  streets  by  a  mob;  second,  Burns  carried  back  to  slavery  by 
United-States  troops,  through  the  same  street;  third,  a  black  regiment, 
marching  down  the  same  street,  to  the  tune  of  '  John  Brown,'  to  join 
the  United-States  army  for  the  emancipation  of  their  race.  What  a 
thrilling  historical  poem  might  be  made  of  that  1"  — See  Letters  of 
L.  M.  Child,  p.  235. 


226        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

of  a  remarkable  man's  life  does  not  stand  on  record. 
It  proved  to  be,  to  many  people,  a  conclusive  answer  to 
the  absurd  talk  of  those  who  affirmed  that  the  negroes 
would  not  fight.  The  address  may  be  found  in  the 
first  volume  of  Mr.  Phillips's  "  Speeches  and  Lectures." 

After  seven  months  of  war,  on  the  8th  day  of  Jan- 
uary, 1861,  a  meeting  of  gentlemen,  who  saw  that 
slavery  was  the  "origin,  or  mainspring,  of  the  Rebel- 
lion," appointed  a  committee  to  consider  the  propriety 
of  organizing  an  Emancipation  League.  This  com- 
mittee, after  most  careful  consideration  at  several  meet- 
ings, finally  reported  the  constitution  to  a  meeting  held 
on  the  19th  of  the  same  month.  The  organization  of 
the  League  was  completed  by  the  choice  of  officers,  on 
the  29th  of  January,  1862. 

The  meeting  of  the  League  on  the  25th  of  May,  1863, 
was  one  of  the  most  animated  of  all.  Robert  Collyer 
of  Chicago  made  a  telling  speech,  but  the  great  event 
was  the  debate  between  Mr.  Phillips  and  Senator  Wil- 
son. Mr.  Phillips  began  his  speech  by  referring  to  the 
inauguration  of  the  League,  and  then  alluded  to  the  de- 
feats and  mistakes  of  the  administration  and  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  which  had  not  even  learned  wisdom  in 
the  way  mentioned  by  the  proverb,  "  He  that  will  not 
be  ruled  by  the  rudder,  shall  be  ruled  by  the  rock." 
He  praised  Gen.  Butler,  and  hoped  he  might  yet  come 
to  believe  in  a  God.  Finally  he  demanded,  in  the 
name  of  the  four  millions  of  negroes  now  called  upon 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAR-TIME.  227 

to  arm  in  defence  of  the  country,  that  they  should  not 
only  be  protected  from  the  "  barbarity  "  of  the  South- 
ern leaders,  but  from  the  hatred  of  their  own  officers, 
some  of  whom  might  be  base  enough  to  betray  them  in 
battle. 

Senator  Wilson  rose,  and  thought  Mr.  Phillips  severe 
in  his  remarks,  but  admitted  that  there  had  been  many 
errors  on  the  part  of  the  government.  This  led  to  a 
prolonged  discussion,  interspersed  with  some  bitterness, 
which  it  would  serve  no  useful  purpose  to  recall. 

On  the  Fourth  of  July,  there  was  a  grand  celebration 
at  Framingham,  Mass.  The  regular  annual  mass-meet- 
ing of  the  Friends  of  Freedom  was  held  there,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Society. 
Besides  Mr.  Phillips,  other  speakers  were  Mr.  Garrison, 
Mr.  Remond,  and  Mr.  Evans,  on  English  workmen. 
The  prevailing  feeling  was  one  of  confidence  in  the 
success  of  the  Union  cause,  and  the  destruction  of 
slavery  by  war,  not  by  peace.  The  address  made 
by  Mr.  Phillips  was,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable 
delivered  by  him  during  the  war. 

Not  everybody  who  lived  in  Boston  sympathized 
with  the  cause  for  the  Union.  "  Copperheads,"  as  they 
were  called,  were  numerous,  and  at  times  noisy  in  their 
hostile  demonstrations.  On  the  evening  of  the  14th  of 
July  a  body  of  these  "oppositionists"  assembled  in 
Boston,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  armory  of  the  Elev- 
enth Battery,  in  Cooper  Street.  The  rioters  attacked 


228        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  armory  with  stones  and  other  missiles,  and  towards 
midnight  the  mob  increased  in  violence  and  numbers. 
The  soldiers  in  their  comparatively  small  room,  with 
guns  loaded,  awaited  the  assault  without  trepidation. 
At  length  the  mob  wearied  of  throwing  stones,  and 
made  a  concerted  movement  to  force  open  the  doors, 
and  to  gain  possession  of  the  few  pieces  of  cannon  in- 
side. The  word  was  given  to  fire.  Several  of  the 
rioters  were  killed,  and  many  more  were  wounded. 
That  one  volley  ended  the  demonstration. 

On  the  3d  of  September  the  Democratic  party  held 
a  State  convention  at  Worcester,  and  nominated  Henry 
W.  Paine  of  Cambridge  for  governor.  The  feeling 
of  the  convention  was  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the 
national  administration,  and  the  resolutions  passed 
were  a  general  indictment  against  the  same.  George 
B.  Loring  of  Salem,  whose  remarkably  false  prophecy 
did  not  prevent  him  from  subsequently  taking  shelter 
under  the  Republican  wing,  where  he  remains  to-day, 
an  office-holder,  addressed  to  his  fellow  Democrats  the 
following  assertion :  — 

"This  administration  will  pass  away  as  the  idle  wind.  Its 
name  will  live  in  history  only  as  an  administration  which  sub- 
verted the  rights  of  the  people,  until  they  rose  in  their  might,  and 
overthrew  it." 

At  the  election  in  November,  Mr.  Andrew  received 
a  majority  of  the  votes  cast,  and  was,  therefore,  con- 
tinued in  office. 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAE-TIME.  229 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  appeared  the  first  volume 
of  the  collected  edition  of  Mr.  Phillips's  lectures  and 
speeches.  The  collection  was  prepared  by  James  Red- 
path,  under  the  advice  and  direction  of  the  orator. 
The  appearance  of  the  volume  created  something  of  a 
stir.  Horace  Greeley,  reviewing  it  in  "The  Independ- 
ent," said, — 

"Mr.  Phillips's  speeches  and  lectures  were  well  worth  collect- 
ing ;  they  form  a  chapter  of  the  history  of  our  age ;  they  seem  to 
have  been  well  edited.  ...  I  doubt  that  any  other  living  lawyer's 
collected  speeches  would  sell  so  extensively  as  theset" 

"  The  Hartford  Evening  Press  "  said,  — 

"  We  regard  this  volume  as  fit,  and  sure,  to  become  classic,  the 
production  of  one  of  the  true  New- World  orators." 

The  editor  of  "  The  New- York  Evangelist "  wrote,  — 

"  We  know  nothing  better  calculated  to  send  a  thrill  of  patriotic 
fire,  like  lightning,  through  the  heart,  than  some  of  these  eloquent 
speeches;  and,  in  behalf  of  our  readers,  we  tender  to  the  pub- 
lisher our  hearty  thanks  that  he  has  brought  them  before  the  public 
in  so  elegant  a  form." 

A  correspondent  of  "  The  Portland  Press "  thus 
wrote,  —  , 

"  We  understand  that  Edward  Everett  is  soon  to  visit  the  West. 
We  should  be  glad  to  hear  him  in  this  region :  next  to  Wendell 
Phillips,  he  is  the  most  eloquent  man  in  the  country. 

"  A  gentleman  in  Washington  told  me  a  short  time  since,  that 
he  was  about  to  furnish  his  son,  as  an  aid  to  his  education,  the 


230        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

writings  of  "Wendell  Phillips,  with  directions  to  write  off  and  study ; 
these  presenting  the  finest  specimens  of  eloquence,  especially  of 
American  eloquence." 

On  the  £lst  of  December  Mr.  Phillips  repeated  his 
famous  Cooper  Institute  speech  on  "The  Amnesty," 
before  the  Mercantile  Library  Association  in  Boston. 
Many  persons  at  the  time  regarded  this  speech  as  an 
attack  on  the  President  and  Secretary  Chase.  Never- 
theless, everybody  was  anxious  to  read  it ;  and,  while 
many  abused  Phillips,  but  few  came  forward  to  answer 
his  arguments. 

On  the  evening  of  Dec.  22,  1863,  a  very  large  audi- 
ence assembled  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York,  to  hear 
Mr.  Phillips's  criticism  on  the  President's  "Amnesty 
Proclamation."  No  more  momentous  questions  were 
ever  presented  to  a  people  than  those  contained  and 
involved  in  this  proclamation ;  and  it  was  held  by  Mr. 
Phillips,  that  the  freest  discussion  of  these  questions 
was  among  the  highest  duties  of  patriotism.  While 
many  people  at  the  time  doubted  the  practicability  of 
the  proclamation,  others  believed  that  it  was  feasible, 
and  that  such  strictures  as  Mr.  Phillips  had  to  offer 
were  merely  an  attack  upon  the  President,  and  his  sec- 
retary, Mr.  Chase.  The  speecK  itself  was  read  by  every- 
body, however,  and  was  one  of  the  most  logical  and 
memorable  ever  delivered  by  the  great  orator.  At  the 
present  time  it  may  well  be  counted  as  one  of  the  most 
important  commentaries  upon  that  momentous  period 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  231 

of  our  national  history.  On  the  26th  of  January,  1864, 
Mr.  Phillips  spoke  again  on  the  subject,  at  a  meeting 
(annual)  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Society. 
In  concluding,  he  said,  — 

"  Massachusetts  is  a  democratic  State,  because  every  man  owns 
his  farm,  and  works  on  it.  New  York  is  like  Massachusetts ;  Illi- 
nois the  same ;  and  we  stretch  away  to  the  West,  democrats,  be- 
cause every  man  has  something  to  do,  and  does  it.  He  may  shut 
off  his  covetous  neighbor,  a  hundred  acres,  right  and  left,  and  say, 
*  Here  at  last  I  am  sovereign.'  Good!  such  a  mood  against  capi- 
talists and  armies :  only  preserve  it.  Make  over  the  South  in  the 
same  likeness;  plant  the  same  seeds:  then  let  the  States  come 
back  when  you  please." 

An  official  call  summoning  a  people's  convention  to 
meet  at  Cleveland,  O.,  on  the  21st  of  May,  "for  con- 
sultation, and  concert  of  action,  in  respect  to  the  ap- 
proaching presidential  election,"  was  looked  upon  by 
outsiders  as  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  It  meant 
strong  dissatisfaction  no  less  with  those  at  the  head  of 
affairs  than  with  those  who  had  convened  at  the  Balti- 
more convention,  and  who  were  suspected  of  a  design  to 
manipulate  that  convention  to  suit  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion relative  to  the  presidential  election.  Above  all, 
the  call  to  the  people  to  send  delegates  to  Cleveland 
indicated  the  growing  demand  for  a  more  radical  policy 
to  bring  the  war  to  a  successful  and  early  conclusion, 
and  to  establish  a  lasting  peace  on  the  basis  of  universal 
freedom  and  justice  to  all,  irrespective  of  race  or  color. 


232        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  call  was  signed  by  Hon.  B.  Gratz  Brown  of 
Missouri,  and  forty-one  others,  citizens  of  influence  in 
their  respective  States.  The  following  letter  from  Mr. 
Phillips  forms  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  convention :  — 

JUDGE  STALLO. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Since  you  asked  my  judgment  as  to  the  course  to 
be  taken  in  nominating  a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  I  have  been 
requested  to  sign  a  call  for  a  convention  for  that  purpose,  to  meet 
at  Cleveland  in  May  next. 

Let  me  tell  you  the  national  policy  I  advocate. 

Subdue  the  South  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  moment  terri- 
tory comes  under  our  flag,  reconstruct  States  thus  :  Confiscate  and 
divide  the  lands  of  rebels,  extend  the  right  of  suffrage  as  broadly 
as  possible  to  whites  and  blacks,  let  the  Federal  Constitution  pro- 
hibit slavery  throughout  the  Union,  and  forbid  the  States  to  make 
any  distinction  among  their  citizens  on  account  of  color  or  race. 

I  shall  make  every  effort  to  have  this  policy  pursued.  Believing 
that  the  present  administration  repudiates  it,  and  is  carrying  us  to 
a  point  where  we  shall  be  obliged  either  to  acknowledge  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  or  to  reconstruct  the  Union  on  terms  grossly 
unjust,  intolerable  to  the  masses,  and  sure  soon  to  result  in  another 
war,  I  earnestly  advise  an  unpledged  and  independent  convention, 
like  that  proposed,  to  consider  public  affairs,  and  nominate  for  the 
presidency  a  statesman  and  a  patriot. 

Yours  faithfully, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

BOSTON,  April  21,  1864. 

On  the  23d  of  May  the  members  and  friends  of  the 
Emancipation  League  met  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston, 
to  transact  the  usual  business  of  such  occasions.  Mr. 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  233 

Phillips  was  one  of  the  speakers.  He  made  a  brilliant 
address,  which  was  listened  to  with  rapt  attention  At 
the  close,  a  gentleman  in  the  audience  arose,  and  in- 
quired of  Mr.  Phillips  if  he  considered  himself  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  duty  bound  to  support 
the  Constitution.  Mr.  Phillips  replied  that  every  man 
and  woman  born  on  the  soil  of  the  United  States  was 
a  citizen ;  but,  so  far  as  regarded  the  support  of  the 
Constitution  by  voting,  he  could  not  do  it  until  its 
pro-slavery  clauses  were  stricken  out.  The  fault  he 
found  with  the  administration,  he  said,  was,  that,  hav- 
ing had  the  means  in  their  hands  of  amending  the  Con- 
stitution so  that  any  abolitionist  could  vote  under  it, 
they  had  not  done  so. 

The  interrogator  said  he  did  not  see  how  any  one  in 
Mr.  Phillips's  position  could  appreciate  that  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  Mr.  Phillips  had 
misrepresented  the  position  of  the  President.  Mr. 
Phillips  replied,  that  he,  in  common  with  all  other 
abolitionists,  agreed  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  view  of  the 
Constitution.  He  found  no  fault  with  Mr.  Lincoln  for 
saying,  that,  as  President  of  the  United  States,  he  had 
no  right  to  abolish  because  he  thought  it  a  sin.  All  he 
(Phillips)  said  in  that  point  of  view,  was,  that  no  negro 
was  bound  to  entertain  any  gratitude  to  Mr.  Lincoln ; 
because  he  had  distinctly  declared  that  he  had  never 
done  any  thing  for  the  negro  out  of  regard  for  him, 
only  out  of  regard  for  the  white  man. 


234        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

During  the  fall  and  winter  of  1864  Mr.  Phillips's 
voice  was  heard  often  in  public.  In  the  last  week  of 
October,  he  spoke  at  Tremont  Temple  on  "  The  Presi- 
dential Election,"  and  stated  that  he  had  dared,  for 
twenty  years,  for  the  sake  of  the  negro,  to  risk  a  divis- 
ion of  the  Union,  and  that  he  now  dared,  for  his  sake, 
to  risk  a  division  of  the  Republican  party.  "  I  dread 
Mr.  Lincoln's  re-election,"  he  said,  "  because  the  press- 
ure against  him  is  diminishing;  and  only  under  such 
pressure  has  he  ever  done  an  anti-slavery  act." 

Though  it  was  evident  that  the  audience  was 
strongly  Republican  in  politics,  the  force  and  justice 
of  many  of  his  statements  drew  frequent  and  vigorous 
applause  from  the  listeners. 

On  the  6th  of  December  Mr.  Phillips  gratified 
another  large  audience  in  Boston  by  his  philanthropic 
discussion  of  "The  Situation."  So  general  was  the 
approbation  of  the  effort,  that  the  orator  wittily  re- 
marked in  private  that  he  needed  only  to  have  an 
income  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  become  "highly 
respectable." 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Anti-slavery  Society 
opened  on  the  25th  of  January  (1865) ;  and  Music 
Hall,  Boston,  was  filled  with  a  choice  company  of  the 
old  and  tried  friends  of  freedom,  together  with  a  mul- 
titude of  more  recent  converts.  The  session  lasted 
three  days,  and  the  leading  theme  of  discussion  was 
"Reconstruction."  Mr.  A.  Bronson  Alcott,  in  a  brief 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  235 

address,  paid  a  beautiful  tribute  to  Mr.  Garrison,  and 
predicted  that  his  work  was  to  be  taken  up,  and  car- 
ried on  to  completion,  by  younger  hands,  and  that  the 
leadership  would  pass  naturally  into  the  hands  of  his 
"  son  and  disciple,  Wendell  Phillips." 

Mr.  Garrison  followed,  disclaiming  any  leadership. 
Mr.  Phillips  then  remarked  that  nothing  could  be 
more  painful  to  him  than  any  thing  said  on  that  plat- 
form which  placed  him,  seemingly,  in  an  attitude  of 
antagonism  to  Mr.  Garrison.  Whatever  the  value  of 
his  anti-slavery  labors,  he  owed  it  all  to  his  teacher 
and  leader.  As  to  the  leadership  of  Garrison,  no 
denial  of  it  had  ever  come  from  any  but  his  own 
modest  lips. 

Mr.  Phillips  then  reverted  to  the  topic  of  the  hour, 
reconstruction,  —  the  admission  of  Louisiana  with  her 
system  of  negro  apprenticeship,  which  he  thought  was 
merely  a  modified  form  of  slavery.  Among  other 
things,  he  affirmed,  "I  will  attend  to  the  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  when  I  have  leisure ;  but  one  thing 
at  a  time.  The  question  now  is,  Shall  Louisiana  be 
admitted?  The  White  House  has  set  its  foot  down 
that  she  shall:  I  have  set  my  foot  down  that  she 
sha'n't." 

The  speaker,  it  was  remarked  at  the  time,  was  never 
more  sublimely  inspired  than  in  this  defiant  declara- 
tion. The  vote  was  taken  on  the  resolutions,  and  Mr. 
Phillips's  series  was  carried  without  a  dissenting  voice. 


236        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

He  was,  therefore,  master  of  the  situation  in  the  old- 
school  anti-slavery  organization. 

At  the  risk  of  interrupting  our  narrative,  we  must 
revert  to  some  of  the  leading  events  in  the  progress  of 
the  war.  A  hasty  recapitulation  alone  will  suffice. 

In  May,  1864,  Grant  had  made  the  declaration, 
which  will  go  far  to  save  his  name  from  oblivion,  that 
he  would  "  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all  sum- 
mer," and  was  in  hot  pursuit  of  Gen.  Lee.  In  Septem- 
ber Atlanta  was  taken  by  Sherman,  and  Sheridan  was 
achieving  his  victories  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah. 
In  December  Savannah  surrendered,  and  the  "back  of 
the  Rebellion  was  broken."  Gen.  McClellan  had  been 
nominated  for  the  presidency  by  the  Democrats,  in 
opposition  to  President  Lincoln.  Intense  excitement 
prevailed,  which  only  those  who  witnessed  it  can  now 
understand.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  re-elected  by  an  unex- 
pectedly large  majority. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1865,  Charleston  was  evacu- 
ated ;  and  the  old  flag  again  waved  its  stars  and  stripes 
over  the  ramparts  of  Fort  Sumter.  Wilmington  had 
been  captured,  and  Sherman  was  marching  northward. 
On  the  20th  of  March  the  Confederate  Congress  ad- 
journed sine  die;  and,  in  May,  Jefferson  Davis,  the 
president  of  the  Confederacy,  was  taken  prisoner. 
The  Confederates  were  on  the  point  of  arming  their 
slaves,  but  it  was  too  late.  On  the  2d  of  April  Rich- 
mond fell:  on  the  9th  Gen.  Lee  surrendered,  and 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  237 

President  Lincoln  (who,  on  the  4th  of  February  pre- 
ceding, had  consummated  the  crowning  act  of  his  life, 
by  signing  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution  prohib- 
iting slavery  forever)  went  to  the  front. 

The  people  of  the  North  were  rejoiced.  But  the  oil 
of  joy  was  suddenly  changed  for  mourning.  On  the 
14th  of  April  the  President  was  assassinated ;  and  he 
was  gone,  —  again  and  forever  to  the  front.  It  was  a 
sad,  sad  day  for  the  nation;  and  South  as  well  as 
North  shared  in  the  universal  sorrow. 

The  war  was  over.  On  both  sides  the  soldiers  had 
done  their  part  well.  Each  believed  itself  in  the  right: 
each  had  acted  as  God  had  given  it  to  see  the  right. 
Far  be  it  from  our  purpose  to  now  recall  old  animosities, 
or  open  anew  wounds  that  time  has  healed.  We  live 
for  the  future,  guided  by  our  recollections  of  the  past. 

"  Under  the  sod  and  the  dew, 

Waiting  the  judgment  day, 
Love  and  tears  for  the  *  blue,' 
Tears  and  love  for  the  'gray.'" 

The  regiments  had  come  home.  As  though  they 
had  lain  them  down  but  yesterday,  they  took  up  the 
hammer,  the  trowel,  the  hoe,  or  the  pen.  It  was  a 
grand  spectacle,  worthy  of  the  Republic.  Said  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  "There  never  was  such  a  thing  known 
before  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  so  large  an  army 
of  soldiers  disbanding,  and  returning  peacefully  to  the 
environments  of  civil  life." 


238        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  25th  of  July  of  this  year 
(1865)  occurred  the  annual  school  festival  in  Boston. 
The  following  recollections  of  Mr.  Slack,  relative 
thereto,  are  interesting.  He  says,  — 

"  It  was  very  nearly  twenty^years  ago,  that,  chancing  to  be  on 
the  school  committee  of  Boston,  I  suggested  to  the  sub-committee 
in  charge,  that  Wendell  Phillips  be  invited  to  speak  at  the  annual 
school  festival  in  Music  Hall.  I  knew  he  had  never  received  an 
invitation  carrying  civic  honor,  since  he  took  his  stand  with  the 
abolitionists  in  1835.  Social  and  political,  if  not  religious,  influ- 
ences were  all  against  his  recognition.  I  nevertheless  ventured 
the  suggestion,  and  warmly  advocated  it.  The  committee  was  a 
kindly  and  sympathetic  one,  but  feared  popular  opposition.  They 
thought  he  might  say  some  ultra  or  exasperating  thing.  I  said, 
Let  us  have  the  courage  to  try  him.  I  will  answer  that  the  city 
will  be  honored,  and  the  company  delighted.'  After  much  talk 
and  deliberation  I  brought  my  colleagues  to  say,  that  if  I  would 
take  the  invitation  in  charge,  and  be  personally  responsible  if  any 
thing  disagreeable  occurred,  they  would  assent  to  the  selection. 
.1  only  too  gladly  accepted  the  trust,  and  at  once  conferred  with 
Mr.  Phillips.  The  invitation  touched  him.  He  said  to  me,  that 
though  a  Boston  school-boy,  and  always  a  dweller  in  the  city 
which  he  loved  as  his  very  being,  this  was  the  first  intimation  he 
had  ever  received  that  he  was  deemed  worthy  to  represent  her. 
Mr.  Phillips  attended  the  festival,  and,  after  the  mayor's  welcome, 
was  called  up.  He  spoke,  only  as  he  could  speak,  of  his  school- 
days, and  gave  a  vivid  portraiture  of  his  part  with  his  associates 
in  the  reception  of  Gen.  Lafayette  in  1824.  The  description  and 
whole  speech  were  simply  charming,  —  not  a  word  misplaced  or 
ill-timed,  not  a  sentence  that  was  not  charged  with  graceful 
cadence,  and  most  attractive  courtesy.  Everybody  was  delighted, 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  239 

and  committee-men  and  all  long  quoted  his  presence  as  a  pre- 
eminent success." 

Mr.  Phillips's  address  was  not  long,  but  abounding 
in  reminiscences.  It  is  here  given  in  full,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  young  people  of  to-day. 

"FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  I  was  invited  by  the  mayor  to  address 
the  scholars  of  the  schools  of  Boston;  but  like  my  friend  Mr. 
Dana,  who  preceded  me,  I  hardly  know  in  what  direction  to  look 
in  the  course  of  this  address  for  the  scholars.  I  can  hardly  turn 
my  back  on  them,  nor  can  I  turn  my  back  on  you.  I  shall  have 
to  make  a  compromise,  —  that  everlasting  refuge  of  Americans. 
I  recollect,  that  when  I  was  in  college,  when  any  classmate  came 
upon  the  stage,  we  could  recognize  in  the  audience  where  the 
family,  the  mother,  or  sister,  or  the  father,  were,  by  noticing  him 
when  he  made  his  first  bow.  He  would  look  toward  them,  and 
they  would  invariably  bow  in  return.  By  this  inevitable  sign  I 
have  distinguished  many  a  mother,  sister,  and  father  among  the 
audience  to-day. 

"  This  is  the  first  time  for  many  years  that  I  have  participated 
in  a  school  festival.  I  have  received  no  invitation  since  1824, 
when  I  was  a  little  boy  in  a  class  in  the  Latin  School,  when  we 
were  turned  out  on  yonder  Common  in  a  grand  procession  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  And  for  what?  Not  to  hear  eloquent 
music,  —  no:  but  for  the  sight  of  something  better  than  art  or 
music,  that  thrilled  more  than  eloquence,  —  a  sight  which  should 
live  in  the  memory  forever,  the  best  sight  which  Boston  ever  saw, 
—  the  welcome  of  Lafayette  on  his  return  to  this  country,  after 
an  absence  of  a  score  of  years.  I  can  boast,  boys  and  girls,  more 
than  you.  I  can  boast  that  these  eyes  have  beheld  the  hero  of 
three  revolutions,  this  hand  has  touched  the  right  hand  that  held 


240        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

up  Hancock  and  Washington.  Not  all  this  glorious  celebration 
can  equal  that  glad  reception  of  the  nation's  benefactor  by  all 
that  Boston  could  offer  him,  —  a  sight  of  its  children.  It  was  a 
long  procession ;  and,  unlike  other  processions,  we  started  punctu- 
ally at  the  hour  published.  They  would  not  let  us  wander  about, 
and  did  not  wish  us  to  sit  down.  I  there  received  my  first  lesson 
in  hero-worship.  I  was  so  tired  after  four-hours'  waiting,  I  could 
scarcely  stand ;  but  when  I  saw  him  —  that  glorious  old  French- 
man !  — I  could  have  stood  until  to-day. 

"Well,  now,  boys,  those  were  very  small  times  compared  with 
this.  Our  public  examinations  were  held  up  in  Boylston  Hall. 
I  do  not  believe  we  ever  were  afforded  banners :  I  know  we  never 
had  any  music.  Now  they  take  the  classes  out  to  walk  on  the 
Common  at  eleven  o'clock.  We  were  let  out  into  a  small  place, 
eight  feet  by  eleven,  solid  walls  on  one  side,  and  a  paling  on  the 
other,  which  looked  like  a  hencoop.  There  the  public  Latin  schol- 
ars recreated  themselves.  They  were  very  small  times  compared 
with  these.  As  Mr.  Dana  referred  to  the  facilities  and  oppor- 
tunities that  the  Boston  boys  enjoy,  I  could  not  but  think  what  it 
is  that  makes  the  efficient  man.  Not  by  going  with  the  current : 
you  must  swim  against  it  to  develop  strength  and  power.  The 
danger  is,  that  a  boy  with  all  these  facilities,  books,  and  libraries, 
may  never  make  that  sturdy  scholar,  that  energetic  man,  we  would 
wish  him  to  become.  When  I  look  on  such  a  scene  as  this,  I  go 
back  to  that  precedent  alluded  to  by  you,  sir,  —  to  him  who  trav- 
elled eighteen  miles,  and  worked  all  day,  to  earn  a  book,  and  sat 
up  all  night  to  read  it.  By  the  side  of  me,  in  this  same  city  of 
Boston,  sat  a  boy  in  the  Latin  School  who  bought  his  dictionary 
with  money  earned  by  picking  chestnuts.  Do  you  remember 
Cobbett  ?  and  Frederick  Douglass,  whose  eloquent  notes  still  echo 
through  these  arches,  who  learned  to  read  from  the  posters  and 
bits  of  writing  on  the  highway  ?  and  Theodore  Parker,  who  laid 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAE-TIME.  241 

the  foundation  of  his  great  library  with  the  dictionary  for  which 
he  spent  three  weeks  in  picking  berries  ? 

"Boys,  you  will  not  be  moved  to  action  by  starvation  and 
want.  Where  will  you  get  the  motive-power  ?  You  will  have  the 
spur  of  ambition  to  be  worthy  of  the  fathers  that  have  given  you 
these  opportunities.  Remember,  boys,  what  fame  it  is  you  bear 
up,  —  this  old  name  of  Boston.  A  certain  well-known  poet  says 
it  is  the  hub  of  the  universe.  Well,  this  is  a  gentle  and  generous 
satire.  In  Revolutionary  days  they  talked  of  the  Boston  revolution. 
When  Samuel  Johnson  wrote  his  work  against  the  American  colo- 
nies, it  was  Boston  he  ridiculed.  When  the  king  could  not  sleep 
over  night,  he  got  up,  and  muttered,  "  Boston. "  When  the  proc- 
lamation pardon  was  issued,  the  only  two  excepted  were  the  two 
Boston  fanatics,  John  Hancock  and  Sam  Adams.  But  what  did 
Boston  do?  They  sent  Hancock  to  Philadelphia,  to  write  his  name 
first  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  letters  large  enough, 
almost,  for  the  king  to  read  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 
Boston  then  meant  liberty.  Come  down  forty  or  fifty  years.  What 
did  Boston  mean  when  the  South  went  mad,  and  got  up  a  new 
flag,  and  said  they  would  put  it  in  Boston  on  Faneuil  Hall  ?  It 
was  Boston  that  meant  liberty,  as  Boston  had  meant  independence. 
And,  when  our  troops  went  out  in  the  recent  war,  what  was  it 
that  gave  them  their  superiority  ?  It  was  the  brains  they  carried 
from  these  schools.  When  Gen.  Butler  was  stopped  near  the 
Relay  House  with  a  broken  locomotive,  he  turned  to  the  Eighth 
Regiment,  and  asked  if  any  man  could  mend  it;  and  a  private 
walked  out  of  the  ranks,  and  patted  it  on  the  back,  and  said,  "  I 
ought  to  know  it:  I  made  it."  When  we  went  down  to  Charles- 
ton, and  were  kept  seven  miles  off  from  the  city,  the  Yankees  sent 
down  a  Parrott  gun  that  would  send  a  two-hundred-pound  shot 
into  their  midst.  The  great  ability  of  New  England  has  been 
proved. 


242        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  Now,  boys, '  the  glory  of  a  father  is  his  children.'  That  father 
has  done  his  work  well  who  has  left  a  child  better  than  himself. 
The  German  phrase  is,  '  Lord,  grant  I  may  be  as  well  off  to-mor- 
row as  yesterday  1 '  No  Yankee  ever  uttered  that  prayer.  He 
always  means  that  his  son  shall  have  a  better  starting-point  in 
life  than  himself.  '  The  glory  of  a  father  is  his  children. '  Our 
fathers  made  themselves  independent  seventy  or  eighty  years  ago. 
It  remains  for  us  to  devote  ourselves  to  liberty,  and  the  welfare  of 
others,  with  the  generous  willingness  to  be  and  to  do  towards 
others  as  we  would  have  others  do  to  us.  Now,  boys,  this  is  my 
lesson  to  you  to-day,  stated  as  an  Irishism :  You  are  not  as  good 
as  your  fathers,  unless  you  are  better.  You  have  your  father's  ex- 
ample,—  the  opportunities  and  advantages  they  have  accumulated, 
—  and  to  be  only  as  good  is  not  enough.  You  must  be  better. 
You  must  copy  only  the  spirit  of  your  fathers,  and  not  their  im- 
perfections. There  was  an  old  Boston  merchant,  years  ago,  who 
wanted  a  set  of  china  made  in  Peking.  You  know  that  Boston 
men,  sixty  years  ago,  looked  at  both  sides  of  a  cent  before  they 
spent  it ;  and,  if  they  earned  twelve  cents,  they  would  save  eight. 
He  could  not  spare  a  whole  plate,  so  he  sent  a  cracked  one ;  and, 
when  he  received  the  set,  there  was  a  crack  in  every  piece.  The 
Chinese  had  imitated  the  pattern  exactly.  Now,  boys,  do  not  imi- 
tate us,  or  there  will  be  a  great  many  cracks.  Be  better  than  we. 
We  have  invented  a  telegraph,  but  what  of  that  ?  I  expect,  if  I 
live  forty  years,  to  see  a  telegraph  that  will  send  messages  without 
wire,  both  ways,  at  the  same  time.  If  you  do  not  invent  it,  you 
are  not  as  good  as  we  are.  You  are  bound  to  go  ahead  of  us. 
The  old  London  physician  said  the  way  to  be  well  was  to  live  on  a 
sixpence,  and  earn  it.  That  is  education  under  the  laws  of  ne- 
cessity. We  cannot  give  you  that.  Underneath  you  is  the  ever- 
watchful  hand  of  city  culture  and  wealth.  All  the  motive  we  can 
give  you  is  the  name  you  bear.  Bear  it  nobly!  I  was  in  the 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  243 

West,  where  they  partly  love,  and  partly  hate,  the  Yankee.  A  man 
undertook  to  explain  the  difference  between  the  time  by  a  watch 
in  Boston  and  in  Chicago.  It  was  but  a  bungling  explanation  at 
best.  He  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  it?  I  answered  him  as  a 
Boston  man  should :  '  We  always  do  what  we  undertake  to  do  — 
thoroughly.'  That  is  Boston.  What  Boston  claims  you  should 
know,  know  it.  Boston  has  set  the  example  of  doing :  do  better. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  said,  in  the  last  hours  of  his  life,  '  I  have  left  the 
Queen's  service ;  I  have  held  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the 
crown;  and  now,  going  out  of  public  life  (he  had  just  removed 
the  tax  from  bread),  the  happiest  thought  I  have  is,  that,  when  the 
poor  man  breaks  his  bread  in  his  cottage,  he  thanks  God  that  I 
ever  lived.'  Fellow-citizens,  the  warmest  compliment  I  ever  heard 
was  breathed  into  my  ears  from  the  lips  of  a  fugitive  from  South 
Carolina.  In  his  hovel  at  home  he  had  said,  'I  thank  God  for 
Boston,  and  hope,  before  I  die,  I  may  tread  upon  its  pavements/ 
Boston  has  meant  liberty  and  protection.  See  to  it  in  all  coming 
time,  young  men  and  women,  you  make  it  stand  for  good  learning, 
upright  character,  sturdy  love  of  liberty,  willingness  to  be  and  do 
unto  others  as  you  would  have  others  be  and  do  unto  you.  But 
make  it,  young  men  and  women,  make  it  a  dread  to  every  man 
who  seeks  to  do  evil !  Make  it  a  home  and  a  refuge  for  the  op- 
pressed of  all  lands ! " 

The  closing  paragraphs  of  this  whole-hearted  and 
beautiful  address,  so  eloquently  inculcating  the  lesson 
"  to  be  and  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have  others  be 
and  do  unto  us,"  recalls  the  following  incident :  — 

One  day  during  the  war  Mr.  Phillips  spoke  before 
the  lyceum  at  Gloucester,  Mass.,  and,  returning  home 
by  the  cars  the  next  morning,  fell  in  with  a  lady  who 


244        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

got  upon  the  train  at  a  way-station.  She  was  a  South- 
ern refugee,  who  had  been  suddenly  reduced  from 
affluence  to  poverty,  and  was  supporting  herself  and 
her  fatherless  children  by  giving  an  occasional  lecture 
before  a  country  audience.  It  was  a  struggle ;  for  the 
field  was  full,  and  she  was  almost  unknown  and  friend- 
less :  but  with  a  brave  heart  she  worked  on,  never 
asking  a  dollar  of  aid  from  any  society  or  individual. 
Mr.  Phillips  saw  her  get  upon  the  car,  and  asked  her  to 
take  a  seat  beside  him.  It  was  a  winter  day ;  and  she 
was  thinly  clad,  shivering  from  the  exposure  of  a  long 
ride  in  the  open  air  of  the  cold  morning.  Observing 
this,  Mr.  Phillips  asked,  — 

"  Where  did  you  speak  last  night  ?  " 

She  told  him  it  was  at  a  town  about  ten  miles  distant 
from  the  railway. 

"And — I  wouldn't  be  impertinent  —  how  much  did 
they  pay  you  ?  " 

"  Five  dollars,  and  the  fare  to  and  from  Boston." 

"  Five  dollars  !  "  he  exclaimed ;  "  why,  I  always  get 
fifty  or  a  hundred :  and  your  lecture  must  be  worth  more 
than  mine,  —  you  can  give  them  facts,  I  only  opinions." 

"  Small  as  it  is,  I  am  very  glad  to  get  it,  Mr. 
Phillips,"  answered  the  lady.  "  I  would  talk  at  that 
rate  every  night  during  the  winter." 

He  sat  for  a  moment  in  silence :  then  he  put  his 
hand  into  his  pocket,  drew  out  a  roll  of  bank-notes, 
and  said,  in  a  hesitating  way,  — 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  245 

"  I  don't  want  to  give  offence,  but  you  know  I  preach 
that  a  woman  is  entitled  to  the  same  as  a  man  if  she 
does  the  same  work.  Now,  my  price  is  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred dollars ;  and,  if  you  will  let  me  divide  it  with  you, 
I  shall  not  have  had  any  more  than  you,  and  the  thing 
will  be  even." 

The  lady  at  first  refused;  but,  after  a  little  gentle 
urging,  she  put  the  bank-notes  into  her  purse.  At  the 
end  of  her  journey,  she  counted  the  roll,  and  found  it 
contained  fifty  dollars,  —  every  dollar  that  he  had 
received  for  his  lecture  at  Gloucester.  It  may  add  a 
point  to  this  simple  incident  to  say  (what  is  the  truth) 
that  the  lady  was  a  niece  of  Jefferson  Davis. 

The  American  Anti-slavery  Society  held  a  meeting 
in  Boston,  on  the  24th  of  January,  1866,  with  a  very 
slim  attendance.  On  the  next  day  the  Massachusetts 
Society  assembled,  bent,  on  the  part  of  its  officers,  on 
dissolving.  Mr.  Garrison,  Edmund  Quincy,  Mr.  Buf- 
fum,  and  others,  favored  this  course  earnestly ;  but  Mr. 
Phillips,  Mr.  S.  S.  Foster,  and  others,  resisted  the  move- 
ment, and  carried  their  side  handsomely.  The  address 
which  Mr.  Phillips  made  on  the  occasion,  was  remark- 
able for  the  closeness  of  its  logic,  its  earnestness  of 
purpose,  its  familiarity  with  current  events,  its  perti- 
nency of  illustration,  and  its  downright  good  sense. 

The  resistance  of  Mr.  Phillips  to  the  dissolution  of 
the  Anti-slavery  Society  greatly  nettled  Mr.  Garrison, 


246        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

and  caused  him  to  send  a  letter  to  "  The  Independent," 
wherein  he  defined  his  position  on  the  questions  of  the 
day,  and  expressed  his  indignation  at  the  misrepresen- 
tations and  aspersions  of  certain  gentlemen  with  whom 
he  had  long  "  been  associated  in  the  anti-slavery  strug- 
gle,"—  meaning  mainly  Mr.  Phillips.  Mr.  Garrison 
showed  plainly  that  he  considered  the  breach  between 
himself  and  Mr.  Phillips  one  which  could  never  be 
bridged.  He  quoted  largely  from  Mr.  Phillips's  speech 
at  the  late  meeting,  exclaimed  "Hit  tu,  Brute!"  and 
went  on  to  accuse  Mr.  Phillips  of  an  undue  fondness 
for  speech-making,  of  "  swollen  self-complacency,"  and 
of  "  egotistical  assumption,"  and  the  like.  Everybody 
regretted  the  breach ;  but  it  must  be  said,  that,  in  all 
their  personal  intercourse,  Mr.  Phillips  treated  his  old 
associate  with  the  utmost  respect,  even  with  deference. 
Mr.  Phillips,  in  public,  was  bound  to  defend  his  own 
views ;  and  it  may  be  added,  that  his  audiences  invaria- 
bly coincided  with  him.  Possibly  it  was  Mr.  Phillips's 
success  which  nettled  Mr.  Garrison.  It  was,  at  least, 
singular,  that  a  reformer  like  Mr.  Garrison,  who  had 
ever  held  that  individual  conscience  and  conviction 
should  be  the  guide  of  conduct,  should  now  be  unwill- 
ing to  follow  this  opinion  when  it  conflicted  with  his 
desire  to  have  the  anti-slavery  agitation  terminate  with 
his  own  retirement  from  the  field. 

On  the  13th  of  April  Edward  W.  Green,  convicted 
on  a  charge  of  murder,  was  hung  in  the  Cambridge  jail. 


PHILLIPS  DUEING    WAE-TIME.  247 

Many  persons  believed  him  innocent ;  and  Mr.  Phillips 
went  so  far  as  to  publish  a  letter  to  Gov.  Bullock,  criti- 
cising in  scathing  terms  the  action  of  that  official  in  the 
hanging.  Again  Mr.  Phillips's  clear  vision  anticipated 
the  verdict  of  the  future.  "  The  New- York  Tribune  " 
printed  the  letter,  and  remarked  editorially,  — 

"  The  execution  of  that  man  was  one  of  the  most  culpable  that 
any  State  has  ever  been  guilty  of,  and  the  day  is  not  distant  when 
governor  and  council  and  court  will  be  equally  glad  to  escape  — 
if  they  can  —  the  responsibility  for  it.  We  believe  Mr.  Phillips's 
letter  rests  on  a  basis  of  facts  that  cannot  be  impeached." 

"  The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,"  which,  throughout 
its  whole  history,  has  appeared  to  have  a  very  indiffer- 
ent opinion  of  the  value  of  its  <ewn  columns,  allowed 
one  George  Sennott  to  pour  out  a  column  or  more  of 
ribaldry  in  response  to  Mr.  Phillips. 

On  the  29th  of  April  Mr.  Phillips  addressed  the 
members  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  Society, 
on  the  subject  of  "Capital  Punishment."  It  was  an 
able  expose  of  the  whole  field,  and  creditable  to  the 
heart  and  brain  of  its  author. 

At  the  annual  anti-slavery  gathering  at  Framingham, 
on  July  4,  Mr.  Phillips  spoke  on  "  The  Meaning  of  the 
War."  It  gave  rise  to  much  dissension ;  and  many 
people  went  home  railing  against  the  speaker  for  his 
assault  on .  the  Republican  party  and  its  leaders,  who, 
he  thought,  were  playing  the  old  game  of  politicians, 
holding  their  principles  in  abeyance,  while  they  sought 


248        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

to  save  a  party.  Others  there  were,  however,  who  had 
memories,  and  who  recalled  how  many  times  Mr.  Phil- 
lips's  judgment  of  men  had  been  confirmed,  his  prophe- 
cies of  evil  sadly  fulfilled. 

In  its  issue  of  Aug.  18,  "  The  Boston  Common- 
wealth" published  the  following  letter,  addressed  to 
the  editor :  — 

"EDITOR  COMMONWEALTH,  —  The  forthcoming  Congressional 
election  offers  to  the  Republicans  of  the  third  district  of  Massa- 
chusetts an  opportunity  of  service  to  the  country  such  as  is  seldom 
presented  to  any  people. 

"  The  representative  man  of  the  republican  idea  in  America  may 
now  be  placed  in  Congress,  where  he  belongs  by  right  of  his 
matchless  eloquence,  his  profound  and  sagacious  statesmanship, 
his  patriotism  without  a  flaw,  his  heroic  courage,  and  his  chivalric 
devotion  of  a  life  to  the  best  interests  of  his  country  and  of  man- 
kind, —  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  The  Republic  needs  Wendell  Phillips  in  Congress :  the  Repub- 
lican party  needs  him  there.  For  that  post  of  duty  he  is  fitted  by 
more  varied  capabilities  than  fall  to  the  lot  of  most  men,  even 
among  the  justly  eminent.  Had  the  policy  which  Mr.  Phillips 
marked  out  as  the  proper  method  for  the  conduct  of  the  war,  been 
adopted,  the  nation  might  have  been  saved  the  years  of  struggle, 
the  sacrifice  of  life,  the  waste  of  treasure,  all  uselessly  expended 
before  the  government  approached  that  method,  to  which  it  was 
finally  obliged  to  come.  Had  the  plan  of  reconstruction,  laid 
down  by  Mr.  Phillips,  been  adopted,  we  should  have  preserved,  and 
not  have  lost,  the  results  of  victory :  we  should  have  had  already 
settled  the  questions  which  may  now  produce  another  war  before 
they  are  adjudicated.  His  was  the  conception  of  the  statesman,  his 
the  policy  of  security.  As  he  has  been  followed,  we  have  won: 


PHILLIPS  DUEING    WAR-TIME.  249 

as  he  has  been  rejected,  we  have  lost.  The  intelligence  of  the 
country  recognizes  these  facts ;  its  fairness  admits  them ;  its  in- 
stinctive appreciation  '  of  the  right  man  in  the  right  place '  will 
hail  the  advent  of  Wendell  Phillips  in  Congress  with  enthusiasm 
and  confidence. 

"  The  Republicans  of  the  third  district  have  the  opportunity  and 
the  power  to  place  him  there.  The  honor  can  be  theirs :  the  bene- 
fit will  be  their  country's.  L.  B." 

About  the  same  time  the  Boston  "  Voice  "  remarked 
editorially,  "What  John  Bright  is  to  Parliament,  the 
workingmen  of  the  third  Massachusetts  district  can 
make  Wendell  Phillips  to  Congress."  It  is  very  doubt- 
ful if  Mr.  Phillips  would  have  accepted  the  nomination. 

It  must  be  plain  to  every  reader  of  this  chapter,  that 
Mr.  Phillips,  though  unmindful  of  office,  kept  close 
watch  of  all  office-holders.  Nothing  seemed  to  escape 
him.  A  close  student  of  events  and  transactions,  he 
was  also  a  severe  critic  of  the  men  connected  with 
them.  In  the  autumn  of  this  year  his  voice  was  heard 
on  "  The  Perils  of  the  Hour,"  and  it  had  no  uncertain 
ring.  "  Five  years  ago,"  he  exclaimed,  "  we  had  a  trai- 
tor in  the  White  House !  He  has  been  five  years 
explaining  why  his  administration  was  a  failure.  We 
have  a  traitor  now  in  the  White  House.  Do  your  duty; 
and,  in  1869,  he  will  be  explaining  why  he  did  not  suc- 
ceed." 

In  November  Mr.  Phillips  paid  his  respects,  in  a 
public  lecture  in  Boston,  to  "  the  swindling  Congress ;  " 


250        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

that  is,  the  Thirty-ninth.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  it 
created  something  of  a  sensation,  even  at  the  seat  of 
government,  as  any  one  now  reading  it  over  will  readily 
surmise. 

The  year  1867  found  Mr.  Phillips  as  active  as  ever. 
That  the  war  was  over,  that  negro  slavery  was  forever 
blotted  out  throughout  this  broad  land,  were  not  suffi- 
cient excuses  for  him  to  still  his  voice.  On  the  24th 
of  January  he  spoke  at  the  State  House,  Boston,  on 
the  new  "  Constitutional  Amendment,"  which  had 
been  nine  months  before  the  country,  and  which  he 
thought,  "  practically  speaking,"  would  "  never  be  of 
any  importance."  Still  later,  he  took  up  the  life  of 
Daniel  O'Connell,  and  considered  it  a  "great  example," 
and  declared,  that,  if  the  green  flag  should  ever  wave 
over  Castle  Green,  it  would  be  accomplished  only  by 
men  who  had  O'Connell  as  their  example.  His  remarks 
on  O'Connell  were  particularly  pleasing  to  "The  Pilot," 
whose  pro-slavery  editor  wrote,  — 

"  Fortunate  will  Mr.  Phillips  be  when  his  acts  are  history,  and 
he  has  passed  away  from  the  scenes  of  busy  life,  if  there  shall 
some  large-hearted  man  arise  in  this  his  own,  or  in  any  other, 
country,  who  with  equal  fidelity,  with  the  same  spirit  of  justice, 
and  with  powers  as  rare  as  his  own,  shall  attest  the  work  of  his 
life,  and  crown  the  altar  of  his  fame,  as  fully  and  impartially  as  he 
has  done  those  of  Daniel  O'Connell." 

During  this  year  Mr.  Phillips  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  the  columns  of  "The  Anti-slavery  Stand- 


PHILLIPS  DUEING   W ATI-TIME.  251 

ard."  Most  of  his  articles  were  on  the  current  issues 
of  the  day;  and,  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  his  pen  ap- 
peared to  be  dipped  in  gall,  so  bitter  were  the  sen- 
tences which  it  wrote.  While  Sumner,  Wilson,  and 
Butler,  and  all  the  rest,  were  discussing  the  great 
events  of  the  time,  Mr.  Phillips's  clarion  notes  were 
echoed  from  sea  to  sea,  and  found  as  many  interested 
listeners.  "  If  1861,"  he  wrote,  in  one  of  his  articles, 
"  will  stand  in  our  history  as  the  year  of  treason,  1867 
will  surely  be  marked,  on  the  same  page,  as  the  year  of 
dunces,  —  at  Washington."  Occasionally  he  wrote  on 
temperance  and  prohibition,  —  subjects  which  he  also 
discussed,  in  strong  words,  from  the  platform. 

On  the  18th  of  November  Mr.  Phillips  lectured  in 
one  of  the  suburban  towns  on  Grant.  He  was  rather 
sharp  on  the  general's  reticence,  but  insisted  that  the 
people  must,  before  1869,  be  so  educated  that  Grant,  if 
his  election  were  inevitable,  should  be  compelled  to  be 
a  Republican  and  a  radical.  Mr.  Phillips  stated  that  he 
would  not  trust  Sumner  or  Stevens  because  they  talk 
well,  but  because  their  lives  are  guaranties  that  they 
would  do  well.  But  no  one  believed  that  any  such  man 
as  Sumner  or  Stevens  would  ever  be  made  president. 

The  only  public  address  which  he  made  in  the  year 
1868,  was  in  the  month  of  May,  at  the  Ladies'  Fair 
held  in  Boston.  The  object  of  this  fair  was,  to  raise 
funds  in  aid  of  the  Cretan  struggle ;  and  Mr.  Phillips 
spoke  eloquently  in  behalf  of  this  object. 


252      LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

On  the  29th  of  January  of  the  following  year  Mr. 
Phillips  spoke  on  "  The  Political  Situation  "  in  Horti- 
cultural Hall,  Boston.  It  was  throughout  a  most  severe 
arraignment  of  the  Republican  party  and  its  leaders. 

"Be  it  known  to  all  men  and  women,  that  hereafter,  on  every 
platform,  when  Henry  Wilson  and  others  fling  in  my  face  the 
merits  and  successes  of  the  Republican  party,  I  arraign  them, 
first,  for  three  months  of  admitted  murder  at  the  South  in  keeping 
Andrew  Johnson  in  the  presidential  chair  without  the  sham  of  an 
excuse  for  not  impeaching  him.  I  arraign  them  for  not  giving 
us  a  Constitutional  amendment.  I  arraign  them  for  not  giving  us 
a  political  bill." 

On  the  27th  and  28th  of  the  same  month  the  New- 
England  Labor-Reform  Convention  assembled  in  Bos- 
ton. Mr.  Phillips  was  one  of  the  speakers,  and  favored 
the  eight-hour  movement  in  an  eloquent  address.  He 
proposed  the  following  resolution,  which  was  adopted 
unanimously :  — 

"Resolved,  That  from  motives  of  public  policy,  and  in  justice  to 
the  only  opportunities  enjoyed  by  the  laboring-classes,  we  ask  the 
opening  of  the  Public  Library  at  the  usual  hours  on  Sunday." 

In  April,  before  a  special  committee  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, Mr.  Phillips  spoke  of  trades'  unions,  not  defending 
them,  but  claiming  that  they  were  the  only  means  of 
self-protection  the  laboring-classes  have.  The  whole 
system,  he  thought,  was  to  be  defended  on  that  ground. 
He  was  in  favor  of  a  commission,  but  feared  that  a 
satisfactory  one  could  not  be  obtained.  He  did  not 


PHILLIPS  DURING   WAR-TIME.  253 

expect  the  rights  of  the  laboring-people  would  be  secure 
until  the  Republican  party  took  hold  of  them,  which 
would  be  when  the  power  of  the  workingmen  was  felt 
at  the  ballot-box.  Failing  in  having  a  proper  commis- 
sion, he  would  have  an  officer  appointed  as  an  inspector 
or  commissioner  of  labor,  with  a  good  salary,  who 
should  have  the  power  to  require  exhibits  from  cor- 
porations that  all  laws  in  regard  to  labor  have  been 
observed,  and  with  power  to  compel  their  observance. 
He  wanted  the  same  officer  to  collect  information  in 
regard  to  the  annual  average  hours  of  actual  labor 
each  day,  deducting  absence  for  sickness,  etc.,  rates  of 
wages,  rents,  prices  of  provisions,  some  estimate  of  the 
social  and  comfortable  condition  of  the  laboring-classes, 
and,  in  fact,  all  matters  relating  to  the  laboring-classes. 
Such  a  step  he  also  considered  merely  a  temporary  one, 
the  great  remedy  to  come  when  the  power  to  protect 
themselves  at  the  ballot-box  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
laboring-classes. 

Since  the  death  of  Mr.  Phillips,  a  controversy  has 
arisen  in  the  columns  of  the  Boston  daily  press  relative 
to  the  "mobbing"  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  in  the 
memorable  year  1835.  As  if  knowing  that  the  voice 
best  able  to  speak  on  this  subject  was  forever  hushed,  a 
score  of  "  witnesses  "  have  recently  come  to  the  front, 
bearing  their  "  testimony  "  in  regard  to  the  disgraceful 
event.  At  the  time  of  the  mob,  Miss  Harriet  Marti- 
neau  was  passing,  for  the  first  time,  through  the  streets 


254        LIFE  AND   TINES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

of  Boston,  and,  very  naturally,  inquired  as  to  its  signifi- 
cance. Blushing  with  shame,  but  not  hesitating  to 
deceive,  Boston  society  told  her  that  it  was  "post-time, 
and  people  are  hurrying  for  the  mail."  If  at  that  early 
day  Boston  society  shuddered  at  its  lawlessness,  what 
wonder  is  it,  that,  ever  since  that  day,  it  has  sought  to 
cover  up  its  disgrace  ?  Mr.  Phillips,  though  dead,  yet 
speaketh ;  and  in  the  issue  of  "  The  Boston  Common- 
wealth "  of  Nov.  13,  1869,  a  printed  correspondence 
which  passed  between  him  and  Theodore  Lyman  will 
enable  interested  persons  to  decide  for  themselves  which 
one  of  the  two  contestants  had  the  stronger  arguments 
and  data  to  bring  forward.1 


1  In  this  matter  Mr.  Theodore  Lyman  denied  the  statement  made 
by  Mr.  Phillips  in  one  of  his  lectures,  —  "  The  Question  of  To-morrow," 
—  that  Mayor  Lyman  "  besought,  instead  of  commanding,  that  day,  and 
was,  metaphorically  speaking,  on  his  knees  to  the  mob."  I  quote  now 
from  Mr.  Phillips's  first  reply:  — 

"  His  son  disbelieves  this,  because  such  conduct  would  be  very 
unlike  his  father.  He  was  in  his  cradle  that  day.  I  was  in  "Washington 
Street.  I  saw  his  father  beg  and  sue:  I  heard  him  beseech  and  entreat 
that  mob  to  disperse,  and  preserve  order.  He  never  once  commanded, 
or  sought  to  control,  it.  He  never  vindicated  his  office  by  even  attempt- 
ing to  rally  a  force,  and  maintain  order.  Had  he  issued  one  command, 
even  one  that  was  disobeyed,  he  would  have  done  all  that  in  him  lay 
to  redeem  Boston;  and  I  should  have  honored  him.  I  saw  him  consent, 
if  not  assist,  at  tearing  down  the  anti-slavery  sign,  and  throwing  it  to 
the  mob  to  propitiate  its  rage.  The  city  was  mine  as  well  as  his;  and 
I  hung  my  head,  ashamed  of  it  and  him.  He  was  lamentably  wanting 
on  that  occasion  in  all  that  befits  a  magistrate.  He  broke  his  pledge, 
made  a  week  before,  to  the  Female  Anti-slavery  Society.  The  only* 


PHILLIPS  DURING    WAR-TIME.  255 

Everybody,  not  excepting  Mr.  Phillips  and  Mr.  Gar- 
rison, could  not  help  respecting  the  filial  feeling  that 
prompted  Col.  Lyman  to  defend  the  memory  of  his 
father.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  facts  could  bear 
no  other  construction  than  that  put  upon  them  by  the 
orator.  Mayor  Lyman  was  probably  the  first,  but  cer- 
tainly the  best,  of  the  many  Boston  mayors  who  yielded 
to  the  mob-spirit  that  has  been  as  frequently,  if  not  as 
violently,  displayed  in  Boston,  as  in  any  other  Ameri- 
can city.  The  burning  of  the  Charlestown  convent, 
the  Garrison  mob,  the  Broad-street  riot,  the  Shadrack 
and  Burns  rescue  riots,  the  mobs  of  December,  1860, 
and  January  and  February,  1861,  and  the  draft  riot  of 
1863,  are  cases  in  point ;  and  only  one  of  these  mobs 


order  he  issued  that  day  was  one  ordering  its  members,  legally  met  in 
their  own  hall,  to  disperse.  He  never  commanded  the  mob  to  disperse. 
.  .  .  The  mayor  did  well  in  giving  Mr.  Garrison  the  only  refuge  which 
Boston,  under  such  a  mayor,  could  furnish,  —  its  jail.  .  .  .  Twenty 
years  ago  I  said,  '  The  time  will  come  when  sons  will  deem  it  unkind 
and  unchristian  to  remind  the  world  of  acts  their  fathers  take  pride  in.' 
That  hour  has  come.  I  refer  to  old  shames,  not  to  insult  the  dead,  but 
to  control  the  living.  I  have  no  ill-will  toward  Mayor  Lyman.  His 
services  to  the  cause  of  education  are  an  honor  to  his  memory;  and,  if 
report  can  be  trusted,  he  bitterly  repented  his  weakness  on  that  shame- 
ful day.  But  evil-doers  have  one  motive  more  to  restrain  them,  if  they 
can  be  made  to  feel  that  their  children  will  blush  for  the  names  they 
inherit.  I  bring  these  things  up,  to  show  the  world  that  reformers  have 
terrible  memories;  and  that,  even  if  base  acts  win  office  and  plaudits 
to-day,  the  ears  of  the  actors'  children  will  tingle  at  the  report  of  them 
half  a  century  hence." —  Vide  the  Boston  Advertiser,  Nov.  2  seq.,  1869; 
also  Phillips's  Speeches,  first  series. 


256        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

was  dealt  with  on  the  Napoleon  plan  of  putting  it  down 
first,  and  hearing  its  excuses  afterward.  Boston  had 
tampered  with  mobs  for  twenty  years,  when  Gov.  An- 
drew, in  the  Cooper-street  riot  of  1863,  applied  the 
short  and  sharp  remedy  that  never  fails.  But  he  might 
have  tried  it  in  1861  with  credit  to  himself  and  the 
State. 

It  is  a  notable  fact,  that  almost  all  the  Boston  mobs 
have  been  "  broadcloth "  riots,  and  could  have  been 
quelled  by  a  few  policemen  acting  under  decisive  or- 
ders. When,  in  1861,  Mr.  Phillips  was  subjected  to 
the  riotous  element,  Mr.  Wightman,  the  mayor,  was,  as 
usual,  on  the  side  of  the  mobs.  If  Gen.  Lyman,  or  his 
son,  had  then  been  mayor,  they  would,  undoubtedly, 
have  put  a  stop  to  the  demonstrations;  but  Mayor 
Wightman  rather  took  pride  in  them. 

Nobody  has  ever  had  a  better  right  than  Wendell 
Phillips  to  talk  about  Boston  mobs.  He  saw  every  one 
of  them  that  disgraced  the  city  since  the  days  of  his 
father,  John  Phillips,  the  first  mayor.  He  knew  who 
originated  them,  who  figured  in  them,  who  praised 
them  in  the  newspapers,  and  who  subsequently  made 
confession  of  their  shame  at  them.  The  topic,  how- 
ever, was  never  a  very  agreeable  one  for  discussion  in 
Boston ;  and  this  was,  perhaps,  the  reason  why  Mr. 
Phillips  returned  to  it  so  often. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEAEING  THE  END. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment.  —  Phillips  nominated  for  Governor. — 
Arraigns  the  Republican  Party.  —  Meeting  of  the  Reform  League. 
—  Convention. — A  Labor  Platform. — The  Butler  Campaign  of 
1871.  —  Phillips  at  Stein  way  Hall.  —  "  Courts  and  Jails."  —  Phillips 
supports  Grant.  — Letter  to  the  Colored  Citizens  of  Boston.  —  The 
Days  of  the  White  Leaguers.  —  Opposition  Meetings.  —  Phillips 
on  Finance  in  1875.  —  Phillips  on  Daniel  O'Connell.  —  Sir  Harry 
Yane.  — The  Grant-Sumner  Controversy.  — Phillips  on  License.  — 
Letter  to  "the  Liberal  Clergy."  — Phillips  vs.  Crosby.  — The  Irish 
Crisis.  —  Phillips  at  Cambridge.  —  Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Clarke.  — 
Letter  of  Parker  Pillsbury.  —  Declining  Years.  —  Phillips's  Last 
Speech.  —  Illness.  — Death  and  Burial. 

"  From  Boston  to  New  Orleans,  from  Mobile  to  Rochester,  from  Baltimore  to  St. 
Louis,  we  have  now  but  one  purpose;  and  that  is,  having  driven  all  other  political 
questions  out  of  the  arena,  having  abolished  slavery,  the  only  question  left  is  labor 
—  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor." 

"  I  hail  the  labor-movement  for  two  reasons;  and  one  is,  that  it  is  my  only  hope 
for  democracy." 

"  I  believe  in  the  temperance  movement.  I  am  a  temperance  man  of  nearly  forty 
years'  standing ;  and  I  think  it  one  of  the  grandest  things  in  the  world,  because  it 
holds  the  basis  of  self-control.  Intemperance  is  the  cause  of  poverty,  I  know;  but 
there  is  another  side  to  that;  poverty  is  the  cause  of  intemperance."  —PHILLIPS. 

the  9th  of  April,  1870,  there  was  a  large  gather- 
ing  of  the  members  and  friends  of  the  American 
Anti-slavery  Society,  at  Apollo  Hall,  New- York  City, 
to  commemorate  the  passage  of  the  Fifteenth  Amend- 

257 


258        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

ment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by 
which  "  Liberty  is  proclaimed  to  all  the  land,  and  to 
the  inhabitants  thereof,"  and  to  formally  withdraw  the 
Society  from  the  reformatory  field  as  a  no  longer 
needed  agency.  It  was  an  historical  occasion,  and  all 
hearts  were  blended  by  the  combined  emotions  of  joy 
and  gratitude. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Phillips, 
since  the  resignation  of  Garrison  the  president  of  the 
Society,  who  made  an  eloquent  address.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  other  speakers,  and  numerous  letters  from 
members  unable  to  be  present  were  read.  The  occa- 
sion was  simple,  without  a  single  boast,  hearty,  no 
parade,  but  a  natural  mixture  of  sadness  and  triumph. 
The  members  afterwards  met  and  disbanded.  The 
army  was  mustered  out  because  the  enemy  had  sur- 
rendered ;  and,  as  Mr.  Phillips  said,  the  last  orders  were, 
"  Close  the  ranks,  and  go  forward !  "  to  new  reforms. 

At  the  Labor  Reform  Convention,  held  at  Worcester 
on  the  8th  of  September,  Mr.  Phillips  was  nominated 
for  governor.  Previous  to  this  he  was  made  the  nomi- 
nee of  the  Prohibitory  party.  In  acknowledgment  of 
his  nomination  he  submitted  the  following  letter :  — 

BOSTON,  Sept.  12, 1870. 
CHARLES  COWLEY,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir,  —  You  send  me  notice  that  the  Labor  Reform  party 
of  Massachusetts,  which  met  at  Worcester  on  the  8th  inst.,  has 
done  me  the  honor  to  nominate  me  for  the  office  of  governor. 


NEAEINQ   THE  END.  259 

I  have  no  wish  to  be  governor  of  Massachusetts :'  and,  flattering 
as  is  this  confidence,  I  thoroughly  dislike  to  have  my  name  drawn 
into  party  politics ;  for  I  belong  to  no  political  party.  But  T  see 
nothing  in  your  platform  from  whicn  I  dissent,  and  the  struggle 
which  underlies  your  movement  has  my  fullest  and  heartiest 
sympathy. 

You  are  kind  enough  to  say  that  my  life  has  been  given  to  the 
cause  of  workingmen.  The  adoption  of  the  fifteenth  amendment 
sweeps  in  all  races,  and  gives  the  cause  a  wider  range.  Capital 
and  labor  —  partners,  not  enemies  —  stand  face  to  face,  in  order  to 
bring  about  a  fair  division  of  the  common  profits.  I  am  fully 
convinced,  that  hitherto  legislation  has  leaned  too  much  —  leaned 
most  unfairly  —  to  the  side  of  capital.  Hereafter  it  should  be 
impartial.  Law  should  do  all  it  can  to  give  the  masses  more 
leisure,  a  more  complete  education,  better  opportunities,  and  a 
fair  share  of  profits.  It  is  a  shame  to  our  Christianity  and  civili- 
zation, for  our  social  system  to  provide  and  expect  that  one  man  at 
seventy  years  of  age  shall  be  lord  of  many  thousands  of  dollars, 
while  hundreds  of  other  men,  who  have  made  as  good  use  of  their 
talents  and  opportunities,  lean  upon  charity  for  their  daily  bread. 
Of  course,  there  must  be  inequalities.  But  the  best  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  land  should  give  themselves  to  the  work  of  changing 
this  gross  injustice,  this  appalling  inequality.  I  feel  sure  that  the 
readiest  way  to  turn  public  thought  and  effort  into  this  channel, 
is  for  the  workingmen  to  organize  a  political  party.  No  social 
question  ever  gets  fearlessly  treated  here  till  we  make  politics 
turn  on  it.  The  real  American  college  is  the  ballot-box.  On 
questions  like  these,  a  political  party  is  the  surest  and  readiest,  if 
not  the  only,  way  to  stir  discussion,  and  secure  improvement. 

If  my  name  will  strengthen  your  movement,  you  are  welcome 
to  it. 

Allow  me  to  add,  that,  though  we  work  for  a  large  vote,  we 


260        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

should  not  be  discouraged  by  a  small  one.  Last  year's  experience 
shows  your  strength,  and  the  anti-slavery  movement  proves  how 
quickly  a  correct  principle  wins  assent  if  earnest  men  will  work 
for  it  Yours  truly, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

BOSTON,  Sept.  13, 1870. 

Dear  Sir,  —  When  your  Convention  nominated  me  for  governor 
of  the  State,  it  was  agreed,  for  reasons  satisfactory  to  it  and  to  me, 
that  no  official  notice  of  the  nomination  should  be  sent  me,  and  no 
formal  acceptance  asked. 

A  maturer  consideration  of* the  whole  subject  convinces  me  that 
it  is  best  I  should  express  my  profound  sense  of  the  honor  you  do 
me,  my  entire  agreement  with  you  in  the  necessity  of  a  distinct, 
special  political  party,  and  my  willingness,  that,  in  rallying  such  a 
party,  you  should  make  such  use  of  my  name  as  seems  best. 

As  temperance  men,  you  were  bound  to  quit  the  Republican 
party,  since  it  has  deceived  you  more  than  once.  Any  prohibi- 
tionist who  adheres  to  it  proclaims  beforehand  his  willingness  to 
be  cheated,  and,  so  far  as  political  action  is  concerned,  betrays  his 
principles.  The  Republican  party  deserves  our  gratitude.  It  has 
achieved  great  results.  It  will  deserve  our  support  whenever  it 
grapples  with  our  present  living  difficulties.  A  party  must  live  on 
present  service,  not  on  laurels,  however  well  earned. 

I  have  no  wish  to  be  governor  of  Massachusetts.  But,  to  rally 
a  political  party,  disinterested  men  must  give  years  to  the  work  of 
enlightening  the  public  mind,  and  organizing  their  ranks.  In  that 
work,  I  am  willing  to  be  used.  My  inclinations  would  induce  me 
to  decline  the  nomination ;  but  I  dare  not  do  so  in  view  of  the  vast 
interests  involved  in  your  movement,  which  call  on  each  one  of  us 
to  make  every  sacrifice  to  insure  its  success. 

No  one  supposes  that  law  can  make  men  temperate.     Occa- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  261 

sionally  some  sot  betrays  the  average  level  of  liquor  intelligence, 
by  fancying  that  to  be  our  belief  and  plan.  Temperance  men,  on 
the  contrary,  have  always  known  and  argued  that  we  must  trust 
to  argument,  example,  social  influence,  and  religious  principle,  to 
make  men  temperate.  But  law  can  shut  up  those  bars  and  dram- 
shops which  facilitate  and  feed  intemperance,  which  double  our 
taxes,  make  our  streets  unsafe  for  men  of  feeble  resolution,  treble 
the  peril  to  property  and  life,  and  make  the  masses  tools  in  the 
hands  of  designing  men  to  undermine  and  cripple  law. 

The  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  rests  with  each  man's  discretion. 
But  the  trade  in  them  comes  clearly  within  the  control  of  law. 
Many  considerations  —  and  among  them  the  safety  and  success  of 
republican  institutions  —  bid  us  put  forth  the  full  power  of  the 
law  to  shut  up  dram-shops.  We  have  never  yet  ruled  a  great  city 
on  the  principle  of  self-government.  Republican  institutions, 
undermined  by  intemperance,  are  obliged  to  confess  that  they 
have  never  governed  a  great  city  here,  on  the  basis  of  universal 
suffrage,  in  such  way  as  to  preserve  order,  protect  life,  and  secure 
free  speech. 

New  York,  ruled  by  drunkards,  is  proof  of  the  despotism  of  the 
dram-shop.  Men  whom  murderers  serve  that  they  may  escape, 
and  because  they  have  escaped  the  gallowrs,  rule  that  city.  The 
ribald  crew  which  holds  them  up  could  neither  stifle  its  own  con- 
science, nor  rally  its  retinue,  but  for  the  help  of  the  grog-shop. 
A  like  testimony  comes  from  the  history  of  our  other  great  cities. 
State  laws  are  defied  in  their  streets ;  and  by  means  of  the  dram- 
shop, and  the  gilded  saloons  of  fashionable  hotels,  their  ballot-box 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  criminal  classes,  —  of  men  who  avowedly 
and  systematically  defy  the  laws.  Indeed,  this  is  the  case  in 
Boston. 

Since  your  nomination  was  made,  I  have  been  honored  with 
another  by  the  workingmen  of  Massachusetts.  Their  cause  is  a 


262        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

powerful  ally  of  yours.  Whatever  lifts  the  masses  to  better  edu- 
cation and  more  self-control,  and  secures  them  their  full  rights, 
helps  the  temperance  cause.  Indeed,  theirs  is  a  radical  move- 
ment, broad  as  the  human  race,  and  properly  includes  every  thing 
that  elevates  man,  and  subjects  passion  and  temptation  to  reason 
and  principle. 

But  the  only  bulwark  against  the  dangers  of  intemperance  is 
prohibition.  More  than  thirty  years  of  experience  have  convinced 
me,  and  as  wide  an  experience  has  taught  you,  that  this  can 
only  be  secured  by  means  of  a  distinct  political  organization. 
Thoroughly  as  I  dislike  to  have  my  name  used  in  a  political  can- 
vass, I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  the  right  to  refuse  its  use  if  you 
think  it  will  strengthen  your  party. 

I  am,  very  respectfully  yours, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


On  the  18th  of  October  Mr.  Phillips  enunciated  his 
views  on  the  questions  of  the  hour  in  an  eloquent 
address  at  Music  Hall.  For  some  weeks  previous  he 
had  been  the  object  of  much  severe  criticism  by  per- 
sons who  doubted  his  fitness  as  a  "political  leader." 
An  opportunity  to  respond  was  now  furnished  to  him. 
In  the  first  place  he  arraigned  the  Republican  organiza- 
tion as  "  a  party  with  but  one  idea,  —  that  of  territorial 
limitation."  Next  he  made  an  attack  on  "  Warrington  " 
for  certain  alleged  statements,  and  was  not  particularly 
complimentary  to  Gov.  Claflin.  Lastly,  he  was  cruelly 
unjust  to  Francis  W.  Bird  and  his  associates  of  the 
"  Bird  Club,"  whom  he  accused  of  being  "  a  vast  con- 


NEABING   THE  END.  263 

trolling  and  black-mailing  institution  in  the  politics  ol 
Massachusetts."  Altogether,  the  address  was  unfor- 
tunate :  it  gave  rise  to  a  controversy  which  continued 
through  many  weeks,  and  which  ended  with  no  satis- 
factory results.  It  is  unpleasant  to  recall  it ;  and,  the 
sooner  it  is  forgotten,  the  better  will  it  be.  But  such 
vexations  are  part  of  the  fate  of  all  who  get  promi- 
nently into  the  whirl  of  politics. 

On  the  9th  of  May,  1871,  the  Reform  League  con- 
vened in  New- York  City.  A  letter  was  read  from 
Senator  Sumner,  regretting  that  he  could  not  attend 
the  meeting,  and  recommending  the  Americans  to  give 
up  the  war-dance  around  San  Domingo.  The  annual 
report  dealt  with  the  South,  and  with  the  Indian  and 
Chinese  questions.,  Mr.  Phillips  spoke  nearly  an  hour, 
dealing  chiefly  with  the  Southern  difficulty  and  the 
labor-reform  question.  He  approved  Senator  Sumner's 
San  Domingo  policy,  and  regretted  the  insult  offered 
him.  Certain  remarks,  not  complimentary  to  "The 
Tribune,"  drew  out  a  long  reply  by  Mr.  Greeley. 

The  labor  and  prohibitory  conventions  respectively 
met  on  Sept.  4,  1871,  at  South  Framingham,  Mass., 
and  in  Boston.  In  the  former  Mr.  Phillips  presided: 
there  were  present  some  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
delegates,  of  whom  eight  or  ten  were  women.  Mr. 
Phillips  said,  on  taking  the  chair,  that  he  regarded  their 
movement  as  the  grandest  and  most  comprehensive  of 
the  age.  It  was  for  the  people  peaceably  to  take  pos- 


264        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

session  of  their  own,  —  the  peaceable  marshalling  of 
the  voters  toward  remodelling  the  industrial  and  saving 
civilization  of  the  day.  This  movement  was,  first,  the 
movement  of  humanity  to  protect  itself;  second,  it 
was  the  assurance  of  peace ;  and,  third,  it  was  the  guar- 
anty against  the  destruction  of  capital.  Mr.  Phillips 
then  presented  the  following  resolutions,  which  were 
unanimously  adopted.  They  may  be  said  to  be  a  "  full 
body  of  faith,"  and  they  show  just  where  Mr.  Phillips 
stood  for  the  last  thirteen  years  of  his  life : 

PLATFORM. 

We  affirm,  as  a  fundamental  principle,  that  labor,  the  creator  of 
wealth,  is  entitled  to  all  it  creates. 

Affirming  this,  we  avow  ourselves  willing  to  accept  the  final 
results  of  the  operation  of  a  principle  so  radical,  such  as  the  over- 
throw of  the  whole  profit-making  system,  the  extinction  of  all 
monopolies,  the  abolition  of  privileged  classes,  universal  education 
and  fraternity,  perfect  freedom  of  exchange,  and,  best  and  grandest 
of  all,  the  final  obliteration  of  that  foul  stigma  upon  our  so-called 
Christian  civilization,  the  poverty  of  the  masses.  Holding  princi- 
ples as  radical  as  these,  and  having  before  our  minds  an  ideal  con- 
dition so  noble,  we  are  still  aware  that  our  goal  cannot  be  reached 
at  a  single  leap.  We  take  into  account  the  ignorance,  selfishness, 
prejudice,  corruption,  and  demoralization  of  the  leaders  of  the  peo- 
ple, and,  to  a  large  extent,  of  the  people  themselves ;  but  still,  we 
demand  that  some  steps  be  taken  in  this  direction  :  therefore,  — 

Resolved,  That  we  declare  war  with  the  wages  system,  which 
demoralizes  alike  the  hirer  and  the  hired,  cheats  both,  and  enslaves 
the  workirigman ;  war  with  the  present  system  of  finance,  which 


NEAEING   THE  END.  265 

robs  labor,  and  gorges  capital,  makes  the  rich  richer,  and  the  poor 
poorer,  and  turns  a  republic  into  an  aristocracy  of  capital ;  war 
with  these  lavish  grants  of  the  public  lands  to  speculating  compa- 
nies, and,  whenever  in  power,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  use  every  just 
and  legal  means  to  resume  all  such  grants  heretofore  made ;  war 
with  the  system  of  enriching  capitalists  by  the  creation  and  increase 
of  public  interest-bearing  debts.  We  demand  that  every  facility, 
and  all  encouragement,  shall  be  given  by  law  to  co-operation  in 
all  branches  of  industry  and  trade,  and  that  the  same  aid  be  given 
to  co-operative  efforts  that  has  heretofore  been  given  to  railroads 
and  other  enterprises.  We  demand  a  ten-hour  day  for  factory- 
work  as  a  first  step,  and  that  eight  hours  be  the  working-day  of 
all  persons  thus  employed  hereafter.  We  demand,  that,  whenever 
women  are  employed  at  public  expense  to  do  the  same  kind  and 
amount  of  work  as  men  perform,  they  shall  receive  the  same 
wages.  We  demand  that  all  public  debts  be  paid  at  once  in 
accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  contract,  and  that  no  more  debts 
be  created.  Viewing  the  contract  importation  of  coolies  as  only 
another  form  of  the  slave-trade,  we  demand  that  all  contracts  made 
relative  thereto  be  void  in  this  country,  and  that  no  public  ship, 
and  no  steamship  which  receives  public  subsidy,  shall  aid  in  such 
importation. 


Wendell  Phillips,  in  presenting  this  platform,  en- 
forced its  far-reaching  principles  in  a  speech  from  which 
the  following  passages  are  taken :  — 

"I  regard  the  movement  with  which  this  convention  is  con- 
nected as  the  grandest  and  most  comprehensive  movement  of  the 
age.  [Applause.]  And  I  choose  my  epithets  deliberately;  for  I 
can  hardly  name  the  idea  in  which  humanity  is  interested,  which 


266        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

I  do  not  consider  locked  up  in  the  success  of  this  movement  of  the 
people  to  take  possession  of  their  own.  [Applause.] 

"  All  over  the  world,  in  every  civilized  land,  every  man  can  see, 
no  matter  how  thoughtless,  that  the  great  movement  of  the  masses, 
in  some  shape  or  other,  has  begun.  Humanity  goes  by  logical 
steps,  and  centuries  ago  the  masses  claimed  emancipation  from 
actual  chains.  It  was  citizenship,  nothing  else.  When  that  was 
gained,  they  claimed  the  ballot ;  and,  when  our  fathers  won  that, 
then  the  road  was  opened,  the  field  was  clear  for  this  last  move- 
ment, toward  which  the  age  can't  be  said  to  grope,  as  we  used  to 
phrase  it,  but  toward  which  the  age  lifts  itself  all  over  the  world. 

"If  there  is  anyone  feature  which  we  can  distinguish  in  all 
Christendom,  under  different  names,  trades-unions,  co-operation, 
Crispins  and  Internationals,  under  all  flags,  there  is  one  great 
movement.  It  is  for  the  people  peaceably  to  take  possession  of 
their  own.  No  more  riots  in  the  streets ;  no  more  disorder  and 
revolution  ;  no  more  arming  of  different  bands  ;  no  cannon  loaded 
to  the  lips.  To-day  the  people  have  chosen  a  wiser  method :  they 
have  got  the  ballot  in  their  right  hands ;  and  they  say,  '  We  come 
to  take  possession  of  the  governments  of  the  earth.'  In  the  inter- 
ests of  peace  I  welcome  this  movement,  —  the  peaceable  marshal- 
ling of  all  voters  toward  remodelling  the  industrial  and  political 
civilization  of  the  day.  I  have  not  a  word  to  utter  —  far  be  it 
from  me !  —  against  the  grandest  declaration  of  popular  indigna- 
tion which  Paris  wrote  on  the  pages  of  history  in  fire  and  blood. 
I  honor  Paris  as  the  vanguard  of  the  internationals  of  the  world. 
[Loud  applause.]  When  kings  wake  at  night,  startled  and  aghast, 
they  don't  dream  of  Germany  and  its  orderly  array  of  forces. 
Aristocracy  wakes  up  aghast  at  the  memory  of  France ;  and,  when 
I  want  to  find  the  vanguard  of  the  people,  I  look  to  the  uneasy 
dreams  of  an  aristocracy,  and  find  what  they  dread  most. 
[Applause.]  And  to-day  the  conspiracy  of  emperors  is  to  put 


NEAEING   THE  END.  267 

down  —  what  ?  Not  the  Czar,  not  the  Emperor  William,  not  the 
armies  of  United  Germany ;  but,  when  the  emperors  come  together 
in  the  centre  of  Europe,  what  plot  do  they  lay?  To  annihilate 
the  Internationals,  and  France  is  the  soul  of  the  Internationals. 
I,  for  one,  honor  Paris :  but  in  the  name  of  Heaven,  and  with  the 
ballot  in  our  right  hands,  we  shall  not  need  to  write  our  record  in 
fire  and  blood ;  we  write  it  in  the  orderly  majorities  at  the  ballot- 
box.  [Applause.] 

"  If  any  man  asks  me,  therefore,  what  value  I  place  first  upon 
this  movement,  I  should  say  it  was  the  movement  of  humanity  to 
protect  itself;  and  secondly,  it  is  the  insurance  of  peace;  and 
thirdly,  it  is  a  guaranty  against  the  destruction  of  capital.  We 
all  know  that  there  is  no  war  between  labor  and  capital,  —  that 
they  are  partners,  not  enemies,  —  and  their  true  interests  on  any 
just  basis  are  identical.  And  this  movement  of  ballot-bearing 
millions  is  to  avoid  the  unnecessary  waste  of  capital. 

"Well,  gentlemen,  I  say  so  much  to  justify  myself  in  styling  this 
the  grandest  and  most  comprehensive  movement  of  the  age. 
[Applause.] 

"You  don't  kill  a  hundred  millions  of  corporate  capital,  you 
don't  destroy  the  virus  of  incorporate  wealth,  by  any  one  election. 
The  capitalists  of  Massachusetts  are  neither  fools  nor  cowards ;  and 
you  will  have  to  whip  them  three  times,  and  bury  them  under  a 
monument  weightier  than  Bunker  Hill,  before  they  will  believe 
they  are  whipped.  Now,  gentlemen,  the  inference  from  that  state- 
ment is  this:  The  first  duty  resting  on  this  convention,  which 
rises  above  all  candidates  and  all  platforms,  is,  that  it  should  keep 
the  labor-party  religiously  together." 

In  the  summer  of  1871  Mr.  Phillips  informed  an 
"  interviewer  "  from  New  York,  that,  to  his  knowledge, 


268        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Gen.  Butler  intended  to  run  for  governor  "  on  a  joint 
Republican  and  labor  platform."  The  platform  which 
the  general  finally  laid  down  was  just  this ;  and  hence 
the  information  imparted  by  one  who  always  had  his 
confidence,  was,  nearly  six  months  before,  substantially 
correct. 

Having  been  led  into  the  campaign  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  his  friends,  Gen.  Butler  made  his  first 
speech  at  Springfield  on  the  24th  of  August ;  his  main 
topics  for  discussion  being  the  labor-question  and  the 
question  of  the  sale  of  liquors.  He  spoke  subsequently 
at  numerous  other  places  in  the  State.  His  competitors 
in  the  field  were  George  B.  Loring  of  Salem,  Alexander 
H.  Rice  of  Boston,  Mr.  Speaker  Jewell,  and  Williajn 
B.  Washburn  of  Greenfield.  But,  at  the  start,  Gen. 
Butler  appeared  to  be  foremost  in  the  contest. 

On  the  13th  of  September  Mr.  Phillips  addressed  a 
large  gathering  at  Salisbury  Beach,  "  of  all  parties  and 
all  classes  of  men."  It  was  a  speech  in  favor  of  Gen. 
Butler's  candidature,  honestly  conceived,  and  earnestly 
uttered.  Mr.  Phillips  had  known^Gen.  Butler  since 
the  latter's  boyhood,  and  was,  therefore,  fully  compe- 
tent to  express  an  opinion  of  his  fitness  or  unfitness  for 
office.  Very  naturally,  his  words,  which  were  not  min- 
cing, and  which  cut  to  the  quick,  gave  great  offence  to 
Butler's  opponents.  There  were  not  wanting  many 
persons  who  believed  that  Mr.  Phillips  had  himself 
"lost  his  head,"  or  "was  gone  crazy."  But  the  great 


NEAEING   THE  END.  269 

orator  was  used  to  such  aspersions  and  insinuations. 
But  we  will  now  quote  from  his  speech:  — 

"Gentlemen,  within  the  last  twenty  years  Massachusetts  has 
conferred  honor  whenever  she  has  conferred  office.  She  has  not 
received  any.  And  I  have  to  say,  that,  among  the  worthy  men 
whom  for  fifty  years  Massachusetts  has  chosen  to  put  into  her 
governor's  chair,  there  is  not  one  that  will  do  more  credit  to  the 
State  than  he  who  has  just  left  this  platform,  and  to  whose  voice 
you  have  just  listened.  [Applause.]  I  know  the  long  list  of  the 
governors ;  I  know  all  that  can  be  said  for  Brooks,  Briggs,  Andrew, 
or  any  one  else  that  may  be  your  favorite;  but,  when  history  comes 
to  record  the  great  names  and  the  great  services  Massachusetts  has 
rendered  to  the  nation  and  to  the  age,  she  will  write  the  name  of 
BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER  as  high,  if  not  higher,  than  any  of  those 
men  who  have  filled  the  governor's  chair  for  fifty  years.  I  know 
what  I  assert ;  and,  though  I  do  not  choose  to  name  any  one  of  the 
long  catalogue  of  candidates  this  year,  yet  I  ask  every  one  of  you, 
no  matter  to  what  party  you  belong,  or  what  name  you  worship, 
Show  me  a  name  in  that  long  list  which  has  been  offered  for  your 
votes  this  fall,  show  me  one,  who  represents  an  idea.  Show  me  the 
man  among  these  candidates,  who,  if  he  died  to-morrow,  any  great 
progressive  idea  or  movement  would  lose  a  champion.  You  know, 
every  one  of  you,  that  death,  in  its  mysterious  interposition,  might 
sweep  from  the  stage  of  human  affairs  all  these  worthy  gentlemen, 
and  the  cause  of  humanity  and  progress  would  not  be  the  poorer.'* 

He  thus  alluded  to  the  labor-question  :  — 

"  The  great  question  of  the  future  is  money  against  legislation. 
My  friends,  you  and  I  shall  be  in  our  graves  long  before  that  battle 
is  ended  ;  and,  unless  our  children  have  more  patience  and  courage 


270        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

than  saved  this  country  from  slavery,  Republican  institutions  will 
go  down  before  moneyed  corporations.  Rich  men  die ;  but  banks 
are  immortal,  and  railroad  corporations  never  have  any  diseases. 
In  the  long  run  with  the  Legislatures,  they  are  sure  to  win. 

"Now,  this  great  battle  which  Gen.  Butler  represents,  is  the 
battle  of  labor.  And  I  came  here  to  say  that  I  hope  Gen.  Butler 
will  be  governor,  because  he  represents  that  element  of  disturbance 
in  the  Republican  party ;  and,  the  moment  he  don't  represent  it, 
the  great  labor  element  that  clasps  hands  from  Moscow  to  San 
Francisco  will  trample  him  under  its  feet. 

"  There  is  one  thing  that  the  masses  of  this  country  and  Europe 
are  determined  upon ;  and  it  is,  that  no  future  government  shall  be 
tested  by  the  protection  it  gives  to  money,  but  to  men.  This  ques- 
tion is  a  great  deal  riper  in  Europe  than  it  is  here,  because  the 
slave-question  has  lately  absorbed  all  the  attention.  It  shook  this 
country  as  God  shook  the  four  corners  of  the  sheet  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  Now  that  it  is  settled,  this  great  question  will  now 
fill  the  arena." 

He  concluded  his  address  by  saying,  — 

"I  think  Gen.  Butler  has  been  charged  with  about  every  sin 
that  can  be  imagined ;  but  there  is  one  thing  (I  watched  very  care- 
fully, —  I  put  my  ear  down  to  the  earth,  like  an  Indian  listening) 
he  never  has  been  charged,  even  since  1861,  of  not  doing  what  he 
said  he  would  do.  You  cannot  find  a  newspaper  correspondent  so 
utterly  reckless  that  he  will  charge  Butler  with  having  broken  his 
promise. 

"  For  one,  I  have  nothing  against  him.  He  has  done  a  great 
many  things  that  I  should  not  have  done;  he  has  done  a  great 
many  things  that  I  would  ask  him  to  do  differently  ;  but  I  will  tell 
you  a  secret,  friends.  If  I  were  Pope  to-day,  there  is  not  a  man 


NEAEING   THE  END.  271 

among  all  the  candidates,  Butler  included,  whom  I  would  make  a 
saint  of,  —  not  one.  If  I  were  Pope  to-morrow,  there  has  not  been 
a  governor  for  fifty  years  that  I  would  make  a  saint  of.  The  diffi- 
culty is,  saints  do  not  come  very  often ;  and,  when  they  do  come,  it 
is  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  get  them  into  politics.  I  don't 
believe,  that  if  you  could  import  a  saint,  brand-new  and  spotless, 
from  heaven,  that  he  could  get  a  majority  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  any  office  that  has  a  salary. 

"  And  now  I  say,  that  this  name  that  we  present  to  you  to-day, 
stands  as  high,  as  illustrious,  as  honored,  and  as  historical,  repre- 
sents as  much  ability  and  as  much  will  to  work,  as  any  one  that 
has  been  named  for  governor;  and  I,  for  one,  if  I  hear,  in  Novem- 
ber, as  I  hope  to  hear,  that  from  Barnstable  to  Berkshire  the 
people  of  the  Commonwealth  have  strangled  the  press  with  one 
hand,  and  the  moneyed  corporations  with  the  other,  and  made 
Benjamin  F.  Butler  governor  of  Massachusetts,  I  shall  say, '  Amen, 
so  be  it ! '  " 

A  few  days  later,  Senator  Sumner  and  Senator  Wil- 
son "authorized"  one  of  the  newspapers  to  say  that 
they  "  deeply  regretted  and  deplored  the  extraordinary 
canvass  which  Gen.  Butler  had  precipitated  upon  the 
Commonwealth ;  and  that,  in  their  opinion,  his  nomina- 
tion as  governor  would  be  hostile  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  the  Republican  party." 
Gen.  Butler  called  at  Senator  Sumner's  rooms  in  the 
Coolidge  House,  Boston,  and  found  the  senator  "  chat- 
ting with  his  colleague." 

Taking  the  morning-paper  from  his  pocket,  the  gene- 
ral read  the  paragraph  above  quoted.  "  This  purports 
to  be  by  authority :  is  it  true  ?  "  he  inquired. 


272        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  Yes,  general,"  replied  Senator  Sumner. 

"  Did  you  concur,  sir  ?  " 

"  I  did,"  responded  Senator  Wilson. 

The  general  then  remarked,  that  there  was  a  time 
when  Senator  Sumner  was  lying  upon  his  bed,  struck 
down,  and  suffering.  "  I  called  upon  you,  sir,"  he  added, 
"to  express  my  sympathy  ;  and  now  you  are  co-operat- 
ing with  one,1  who,  at  that  time,  sat  down  to  supper 
with  your  assailant.  And  now  you  strike  me  a  blow 
on  the  head." 

"  You  are  figurative,  general,"  said  Senator  Sumner. 
"I  have  struck  you  no  blow  on  the  head,  but  have 
simply  stated  to  the  people  what  I  think  of  your  pres- 
ent course.  Had  you  allowed  your  name  to  go  before 
the  people,  as  other  candidates  do,  according  to  our 
usage,  I  should  have  quietly  waited  the  action  of  the 
convention.  But  you  have  come  forward,  a  self-seeker, 
attacking  the  Republican  party  and  the  existing  State 
Government,  making  war  on  them  for  the  purpose  of 
elevating  yourself.  I  do  not  think  this  is  a  good  ex- 
ample. You  are  demoralizing  the  people.  Such  a 
system,  carried  out,  as  it  might  be,  by  all  candidates  for 
office,  would  be  Bedlam  again,  besides  the  spoils  system, 
with  a  vengeance." 

The  general  retorted  by  saying  that  his  speeches 
were  not  correctly  reported,  and  added,  — 

1  George  B.  Loring.  % 


NEAEING   THE  END.  273 

"  This  all  comes  of  your  hostility  to  Grant.  I  am  for 
him,  and  you  are  against  him.  I  have  foreseen  this, 
but  thought  it  would  not  come  before  May ;  but  I  am 
ready  for  it.  You  have  always  been  against  Grant,  and 
every  measure  of  his  administration." 

"  Ah ! "  said  Senator  Sumner :  "  every  measure  ?  Be 
good  enough,  general,  to  name  one." 

"  The  San-Domingo  Treaty." 

"  Waiving  the  question  whether  this  was  an  adminis- 
tration measure,  be  good  enough  to  name  another." 

There  was  no  response. 

"You  are  silent,  general:  please  mention  one  other." 

Still  no  answer. 

"You  are  still  silent,  Gen.  Butler.  You  mention 
only  the  San-Domingo  Treaty,  and  yet  you  allege  that 
I  have  been  against  every  measure  of  the  administra- 
tion. I  ask  again  for  an  answer.  Now,  general,  have 
you  not  been  against  the  treaty  ?  So  that,  in  opposition 
to  the  administration,  we  are  even." 

Gen.  Butler  then  proceeded  to  quote  certain  language, 
which,  he  alleged,  Mr.  Sumner  had  used  in  disparage- 
ment of  the  President,  adding,  "  I  have  an  affidavit  of 
it." 

The  senator  remarked,  that  this  matter  of  obtaining 
affidavits  seemed  a  little  too  much  according  to  the 
practice  of  the  criminal  courts.  "But,  general,"  said 
he,  "to  be  frank,  do  you  think  any  better  of  Grant 
than  I  do?" 


274        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

No  response. 

"  You  are  silent,  general :  you  do  not  answer  me.  I 
ask  you  again :  Do  you  think  any  better  of  Grant  than 
I  do  ?  I  know  you  do  not.  This  I  know." 

At  this  point  Senator  Wilson  joined  in  the  conversa- 
tion, which  then  ceased  to  have  any  interest  for  posterity. 

On  the  26th  of  September  the  delegates  rallied  at 
Worcester.  Messrs.  Rice  and  Loring  had  previously 
withdrawn ;  and,  when  the  votes  were  called,  it  was 
found  that  Mr.  Washburn  had  received  643,  Gen.  But- 
ler 464,  and  that  9  were  "  scattered."  Thus  ended  one 
of  the  most  famous  gubernatorial  contests  in  Massa- 
chusetts, characterized  by  much  bitterness  on  both 
.sides.  A  prominent  political  writer  of  the  day,  "  War- 
rington,"  voiced  the  opinions  of  the  opposition  by 
declaring  Gen.  Butler  "  a  representative  of  nothing  but 
himself,  and  some  of  the  worst  tendencies  of  modern 
politics."  Later  on  he  changed  his  mind  in  this  regard, 
and  regretted  what  he  had  said  and  written. 

In  November,  before  the  election,  Mr.  Phillips  spoke 
frequently  on  the  labor-problem.  In  one  of  his  lec- 
tures, he  stated  that  his  ideal  of  civilization  was  the 
New-England  village  of  fifty  years  ago,  and  argued 
that  owners  of  property  ought  not  to  have  any  consid- 
eration on  account  of  its  increase  in  value. 

On  the  7th  of  December  Mr.  Phillips  addressed  an 
audience  in  Steinway  Hall,  New-York  City.  The  fol- 
lowing passages  are  here  quoted :  — 


NEAEING   THE  END.  275 

"  As  I  look  down  the  years  that  are  coming,  and  descry  the 
harvests  of  our  own  institutions  in  their  growth,  I  feel  very  gravely 
the  vast  importance  —  I  might  almost  say  the  terrible  significance 
—  of  this  labor-question.  You  ask  me  to  speak  to  you  on  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor.  I  am  a  capitalist.  Why  do  I  come 
here?  Because  I  am  gravely  dissatisfied  with  the  civilization 
around  me.  I  shrink  from  so  large  a  word  as  that.  Civilization 
is,  in  seeming,  large  and  generous  in  some  of  its  results ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  hidden  within  are  ulcers  that  confront  social  science, 
and  leave  it  aghast.  The  students  of  social  science,  in  every 
meeting  that  gathers  itself,  in  every  debate  and  discussion,  con- 
fess themselves  at  their  wits'  end  in  dealing  with  the  great  social 
evils  of  the  day.  Nobody  that  looks  into  the  subject  but  recog- 
nizes the  fact  that  the  disease  is  very  grave  and  deep.  The  su- 
perficial observer  does  not  know  of  the  leak  in  the  very  body  of 
the  ship,  but  the  captain  and  crew  are  suffering  the  anticipation 
of  approaching  ruin. 

"  Stretch  out  your  gaze  over  all  the  civilized  world.  There  are, 
perhaps,  in  Christendom,  two  or  three  hundred  millions  of  people ; 
and  one-half  of  them  never  have  enough  to  eat.  Even  in  this 
country,  one-half  of  the  people  have  never  enjoyed  the  resources  of 
this  life.  All  over  the  world  one-half  of  Christendom  starves, 
either  bodily  or  mentally.  That  is  no  exaggeration.  Take  your 
city,  and  go  down  into  the  very  slums  of  existence,  where  hu- 
mr.ii  beings  by  the  thousand  live,  year  in  and  year  out,  in  dwell- 
ings which  no  man  in  Fifth  Avenue  would  trust  his  horses  in  for 
twelve  hours.  [Applause.]  I  have  known  men  who  were  intem- 
perate in  Boston,  cured  by  being  sent  to  Paris.  Why  ?  Because 
in  the  brighter  life,  the  more  generous  stimulant,  the  great  variety 
of  interest  in  the  European  capital,  he  found  something  that 
called  out  his  nobler  nature,  starved  out  his  appetites.  So  it  is 
with  the  intemperance  of  a  nation ;  and,  to  cure  it,  you  must  sup- 


276        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

plement  their  life  with  the  stimulus  of  the  soul.  [Applause.]  I 
will  take  the  social  spectre  that  confronts  social  science  the  world 
over,  —  prostitution,  the  social  ulcer  that  eats  into  the  nineteenth 
century.  Everybody  who  studies  the  subject  will  confess  that  the 
root  from  which  it  grows  is  that  the  poverty  of  one  class  makes  it 
the  victim  of  the  wealth  of  another.  [Applause.] 

"  I  take  the  thermometer  of  the  price  of  English  wheat  for  the 
last  century,  and  place  beside  it  the  thermometer  of  crime ;  and  I 
find,  as  the  wheat  goes  up  or  down,  the  crime  increases  or  dimin- 
ishes. [Applause.]  The  great  majority  of  the  human  race  stands 
just  on  the  edge  of  necessity.  Has  the  classic  genius  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  the  common  sense  of  the  Saxon  race,  given  us  nothing 
better  than  these  apples  of  Sodom  for  the  golden  fruit  of  Paradise? 
One-quarter  of  the  human  race  lives  in  ease  ;  and  the  other  three- 
fourths  contribute  to  it,  without  sharing  it.  If  that  is  the  end  of 
human  existence,  let  us  sit  down,  and  blaspheme  the  God  who 
made  us.  [Applause.] 

"  I  am  ashamed  of  the  civilization  which  makes  five  thousand 
needy  men  dependent  on  one.  The  system  which  develops  this  is 
faulty  in  its  very  foundation.  [Applause.] 

"  You  say,  Why  find  fault  with  civilization?  To-night  is  a  cold 
night,  and  you  will  go  home  to  parlors  and  chambers  warmed  with 
the  coal  of  Pennsylvania.  Why  don't  you  have  coal  here  for  two 
or  three  dollars  a  ton  ?  Why  don't  you  have  it  here  at  an  advance 
of  one  dollar  over  what  it  costs  at  the  mouth  of  the  pit?  Because 
of  the  gigantic  corporations,  and  vast  organizations  of  wealth. 
The  capitalists  gather  three  or*  four  millions  of  tons  in  your  city, 
—  sell  it  when  they  please,  at  such  rates  as  they  please ;  and  the 
poor  man  struggling  for  his  bread  is  the  sufferer. 

"  A  rich  man  is  careful :  he  won't  put  his  foot  in  any  farther 
than  allows  of  its  being  pulled  back.  If  he  heard  a  groan  from 
the  people  at  something  he  did,  he  would  withdraw  his  invest- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  277 

ment ;  for  nothing  is  more  timid  than  wealth.  But  let  that  man 
take  $100,000  or  so,  and  put  it  in  with  nine  others,  and  make  a 
corporation  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,000 :  then  he  is  as  bold  as 
Julius  Caesar.  He  will  starve  out  13,000  coal-miners.  The  Lon- 
don 'Spectator'  says  that  the  colossal  strength  of  Britain  has 
reason  to  dread  the  jointure  of  $456,000,000  of  railroad  capital. 
How  much  more  should  America  have  reason  to  dread  such  com- 
binations, when  Britain  has  more  than  ten  times  our  wealth ! 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  you  say  to  me,  What  do  you  intend  to  do  ? 
Every  man  has  a  different  theory,  but  I  have  no  panacea.  My 
theory  is  only  this :  I  know  that  a  wrong  system  exists,  and  that 
the  only  method  in  these  States  of  turning  the  brains  of  the 
country  to  our  side,  is  to  bring  on  a  conflict,  and  organize  a  party. 
[Applause.]  If  I  should  ask  one  of  your  editors  to-night  to  let  me 
indite  an  article  on  labor  and  capital,  very  likely  he  would  refuse 
me;  or,  if  he  granted  it,  it  might  be  because  a  fanatic  like  me 
would  sell  a  copy  or  two.  But  if  you  will  give  me  fifty  thousand 
votes  on  our  side,  and  the  balance  impartially  divided  between 
your  Fentons  and  Conklings  and  Seymours,  I  will  show  you  every 
journal  in  the  city  of  New  York  discussing  the  question  with  me. 
Labor  is  too  poor  to  own  a  New- York  journal;  but,  when  it  comes 
in  the  shape  of  votes,  then  those  same  journals  cannot  afford  to  dis- 
regard it.  Now,  let  us  organize  it. 

"The  ultimate  thing  which  we  aim  at  is  co-operation,  where 
there  is  no  labor  as  such,  and  no  capital  as  such,  —  where  every 
man  is  interested  proportionately  in  the  results.  How  will  you 
reach  it?  Only  by  grappling  with  the  present  organizations  of 
power  in  the  nation.  It  is  money  that  rivets  the  chains  of  labor. 
If  I  could,  I  would  abolish  every  moneyed  corporation  in  the 
thirty  States.  Yet  I  am  not  certain  that  this  would  be  a  wise 
measure,  because  it  seems  that  the  business  of  the  nineteenth 
century  can  hardly  be  carried  on  without  corporations ;  but,  if  it  be 


278        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

true  that  facility  and  cheapness  of  production  are  solely  to  be 
reached  by  the  machinery  of  corporations,  then  I  say,  gentlemen, 
that  the  statesmanship  of  the  generation  is  called  upon  to  devise 
some  method  by  which  wealth  may  be  incorporated,  and  liberty 
saved.  [Applause.]  Pennsylvania  has  got  to  find  out  some 
method  by  which  Harrisburg  may  exist  without  being  the  tail  to 
the  kite  of  the  Pennsylvania  Central. 

"  I  think,  in  the  first  place,  we  ought  to  graduate  taxes.  If  a 
man  has  a  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  pays  a  hundred,  the  man 
who  has  ten  thousand  a  year  ought  to  pay  five  hundred.  I  would 
have  a  millionnaire  with  forty  millions  of  dollars  taxed  so  highly, 
that  he  would  only  have  enough  to  live  comfortably  upon.  In 
Japan,  when  a  man  dies,  his  land  is  let  to  the  state.  Do  you  not 
think  that  is  a  wiser  plan  than  ours?  The  land  becomes  more 
valuable  through  the  labor  of  the  whole  country,  and  not  by  that 
of  the  man  who  eats  off  of  it. 

"  Our  great  hope  for  the  future  is  in  the  education  of  the 
masses,  for  they  will  yet  be  our  rulers.  New  York  stood  aghast 
at  the  defalcation  of  millions  of  dollars,  but  will  you  submit  to  be 
robbed  of  hundreds  of  millions  by  monopolists?  Fifth  Avenue 
cannot  afford  to  let  the  Five  Points  exist.  You  cannot  get  wealth 
enough  to  fortify  you  against  discontent  within  your  reach." 
[Applause.] 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year,  Mr.  Phillips  delivered 
a  lecture  on  "Courts  and  Jails,"  in  which  he  also 
touched  upon  the  subject  of  the  treatment  of  the  in- 
sane at  some  length.  He  made  this  assertion  in 
closing :  — 

"  We  must  bring  our  insane-asylums  within  the  girth  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  We  must  make  our  insane-doctors  study 


NEAEING  THE  END.  279 

Blackstone ;  and,  until  then,  Massachusetts  will  never  be  a  decent 
State  to  live  in.  A  few  years  ago  this  very  community  threatened 
with  an  insane-asylum  men  who  had  strange  ideas  about  the 
right  of  owning  human  flesh  and  blood.  General  courtesy,  alone, 
saved  them  from  their  fate." 

In  the  following  January,  1872,  Mr.  Phillips  again 
spoke  in  Boston,  on  the  "Labor  Movement,"  in  his 
usual  manner  and  eloquence;  also  in  February  on 
"Temperance,"  from  the  Park-street  platform.  In  April 
he  addressed  a  meeting  of  the  International  Grand 
Lodge  of  Crispins,  in  Boston.  His  speech  on  this  occa- 
sion is,  perhaps,  the  most  noteworthy  which  he  ever 
uttered  on  the  "  Labor  Problem." l 

The  presidential  canvass  of  1872  found  Mr.  Phillips 
an  ardent  supporter  of  Gen.  Grant  and  his  Southern 
policy.  In  the  month  of  August  he  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  colored  citizens  of  Boston,  upon  their  political 
duties.  Of  the  many  effusions  which  the  anomalous 
character  of  the  canvass  induced,  none  exceeded  this  in 
incisiveness  of  statement,  comprehension  of  the  gravity 
of  the  occasion,  and  thorough  analysis  of  the  political 
character  of  the  nominees.  No  one  ever  dissected 
Horace  Greeley  with  more  truthfulness  and  justice, 
and  yet  Mr.  Phillips's  letter  had  the  merit  of  candor 
and  fairness  to  all  sides.  Here  is  the  correspondence 
in  full: - 

1  See  Phillips's  Speeches,  2d  Series. 


280        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  7th  Aug.,  1872 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir,  —  The  undersigned,  honoring  you  for  your  lifelong 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  human  rights,  request  you  to  address  the 
citizens  of  Boston  and  vicinity  on  the  political  issues  of  the  day,  at 
such  early  date  as  may  suit  your  convenience.  With  great  respect 
we  are, 

Yours,  very  truly,  — 

ALEXANDER  ELLIS,  GEORGE  L.  RUFFIN, 

LEWIS  HAYDEN,  J.  R.  ANDREWS, 

C.  L.  MITCHELL,  J.  R.  WATSON, 

B.  D.  JACKSON,  JAMES  M.  TROTTER, 

CHARLES  L.  REMOND,  J.  M.  CLARKE, 

J.  S.  SIDNEY,  PETER  H.  NOTT, 

JAMES  D.  RUFFIN,  RICHARD  S.  BROWN, 

BUELL  SMITH,  WILLIAM  C.  NELL, 

ELIJAH  W.  SMITH,  THOMAS  DOWNING, 

JAMES  T.  STILL,  S.  A.  HANCOCK, 

JOHNNY  WOLF,  NATHANIEL  SPRINGFIELD, 

S.  B.  JOHNSON,  DARIUS  M.  HARRIS, 

E.  GEORGE  BIDDLE,  H.  L.  SMITH, 

ROBERT  JOHNSON,  JAMES  MCFARLYN, 

PETER  L.  BALDWIN,  ABRAHAM  HUGHES, 

JOHN  H.  COKER,  G.  F.  GRANT. 
J.  P.  SHREEVES, 

SWAMPSCOTT,  Aug.  9,  1872. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  You  ask  me  to  address  you  on  the  questions 
involved  in  the  canvass  between  President  Grant  and  Mr.  Greeley. 
I  thank  you  for  the  confidence  implied  in  your  request.  Among 
you,  I  see  many  who  have  been  workers  with  me  in  the  anti-slavery 
cause  for  years. 


NEAEING  THE  END.  281 

My  residence  here  makes  it  inconvenient  for  me  to  attend  a 
public  meeting  in  Boston ;  and,  indeed,  I  think  I  can  state  my 
views  more  satisfactorily  in  a  letter  than  in  a  public  address.  If 
you  please,  therefore,  I  will  communicate  with  you  in  this  way, 
rather  than  in  the  one  you  suggest. 

Of  course  the  first  thought  that  occurs  to  you  and  me  just  now 
is,  that  one  of  your  best,  ablest,  and  most  watchful  friends,  Mr. 
Senator  Sumner,  advises  you  to  vote  for  Horace  Greeley,  and  be- 
lieves that  your  rights  will  be  safe  only  in  his  keeping.  I  touch 
with  reverent  hand  every  thing  from  Mr.  Sumner.  I  can  never 
forget  his  measureless  services  to  the  anti-slavery  cause  and  to 
your  race.  Whenever  I  read  his  words,  I  read  them  overshadowed 
by  the  memory  of  his  early  and  entire  consecration  to  the  service 
of  impartial  liberty;  of  that  zeal  which  has  never  nagged;  that 
watchfulness  which  has  seldom  been  deceived;  of  that  devotion 
which  has  so  rarely  shrunk  from  any  sacrifice,  which  no  opposition 
could  tire,  and  no  danger  appall.  From  such  a  counsellor,  I  ven- 
ture to  differ  with  great  reluctance,  and  only  after  mature  delibera- 
tion. I  should  hesitate  to  publish  my  dissent  if  I  were  not  sure 
that  I  was  right,  and  that  he  was  wrong ;  that  the  occasion  was 
very  important,  and  his  mistake  one  which  leads  to  fatal  results. 

My  judgment  is  the  exact  opposite  of  Mr.  Sumner's.  I  think 
every  loyal  man,  and  especially  every  colored  man,  should  vote  for 
Gen.  Grant,  and  that  the  nation  and  your  race  are  safe  only  in  the 
hands  of  the  old,  regular  Republican  party. 

Some  may  ask  how  I  come  to  think  thus,  when  I  was  one  of 
the  few  loyal  men  who  protested,  in  1868,  against  Grant's  nomina- 
tion, and  seeing  that  I  have  so  often  affirmed  that  the  Republican 
party  had  outlived  its  usefulness. 

Gentlemen,  the  reasons  which  lead  me  to  my  present  opinion, 
in  spite  of  my  former  views,  ought  to  give  my  judgment  more  weight 
with  you.  I  am  forced  by  late  developments  to  my  present  position. 


282        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

You  remember,  that,  in  1868,  I  emphatically  denied  Gen. 
Grant's  fitness  for  the  presidency.  Derided  by  the  Republican 
press,  I  went  from  city  to  city  protesting  against  his  election.  In 
private,  with  Mr.  Sumner  and  others,  I  argued  long  and  earnestly 
against  the  risk  of  putting  such  a  man  into  such  an  office.  At  that 
time  they  saw  only  his  great  merits,  and  supported  him  heartily. 
The  defects  of  his  administration  are  no  surprise  to  me.  I  may 
say,  without  boasting,  that  I  prophesied  those  defects.  I  do  not 
wish  to  hide  them  to-day.  I  entirely  agree  with  Mr.  Sumner  as  to 
the  grave  fault  and  intolerable  insolence  of  the  administration  in 
the  San-Domingo  matter.  I  think  the  frequent  putting  of  relatives 
into  office  highly  objectionable,  and  the  sad  career  of  Webster  is 
warning  enough  against  any  man  in  public  life  venturing  to  accept 
gifts  from  living  men.  These  and  other  defects  are  no  surprise  to 
me.  The  eminent  merits  of  Gen.  Grant's  administration  are,  I 
confess,  a  surprise  to  me. 

His  truly  original,  statesmanlike,  and  Christian  policy  toward 
the  Indians  is  admirable,  and,  standing  alone,  is  enough  to  mark 
him  a  statesman.  His  patience  amid  innumerable  difficulties  in 
our  foreign  relations  is  wonderful  in  one  bred  a  soldier.  The  aid 
the  administration  has  given  to  the  industrial  and  financial  pros- 
perity of  the  country  is  a  great  merit.  Gen.  Grant's  prompt  inter- 
ference for  justice  to  workingmen  in  defiance  of  those  about  him, 
relative  to  the  execution  of  the  eight- hour  law,  I  shall  always 
remember.  The  crime  of  the  Republican  party  in  tolerating  the 
Ku-Klux  is  flagrant.  But  the  President  and  his  immediate 
friends  deserve  our  gratitude  for  their  efforts  and  success  in  that 
matter.  His  services  to  the  fifteenth  amendment,  I  shall  never 
forget.  When  some,  even  of  the  foremost  abolitionists,  doubted, 
and  were  lukewarm,  I  wrote  to  Senator  Wilson,  asking  him  to  urge 
Gen.  Grant  to  put  three  lines  into  his  first  message  commending 
that  measure  to  Congress  and  the  country.  The  answer  came 


NEARING   THE  END.  283 

back,  "You  are  too  late.  Gen.  Grant's  message  was  finished 
before  your  note  arrived,  and  the  recommendation  you  wish  is  in 
it."  It  still  remains  lamentably  true,  that  the  colored  man  has  no 
full  recognition  at  the  North,  and  no  adequate  protection  in  the 
South  —  shame  to  the  administration  and  to  the  Republican  party  1 
But  their  friends  may  fairly  claim,  that,  during  the  last  three  years, 
the  negro  has  steadily  gained  in  the  safe  exercise  and  quiet  enjoy- 
ment of  his  rights. 

I  know  the  defects  of  Gen.  Grant's  administration  as  well  as 
any  man.  I  think,  distrustful  as  I  was  of  him,  I  am  able  to  see 
the  good  service  he  has  unexpectedly  rendered  the  nation. 

But  no  matter  for  those  defects.  At  the  most  they  are  not  fatal, 
and  events  have  lifted  President  Grant  into  being  to-day  the  symbol 
and  representative  of  loyalty.  The  conspiracy  between  Southern 
secessionists  and  Northern  copperheads,  of  which,  very  naturally, 
Mr.  Greeley  is  the  tool,  and,  unfortunately,  Mr.  Sumner  is  the 
indorser,  and,  I  think, 'the  dupe,  leaves  room  for  but  two  parties, 
—  those  who  are  for  the  nation,  and  those  who  are  against  it.  I 
bate  no  jot  of  my  brotherly  regard  and  sincere  esteem  for  Mr. 
Sumner  in  thus  holding  him  deceived.  The  entire  faith  I  have  in 
his  honesty  of  purpose  obliges  me  to  think  him  duped.  The  only 
wonder  is,  how  this  is  possible  when  the  South  is  so  insolent  and 
shameless  in  proclaiming  her  intentions.  The  South  has  long  seen 
her  mistake,  and  often  confessed  it.  "  The  Tribune  "  itself  makes 
this  statement  as  late  as  June,  1871.  That  mistake  was,  to  con- 
tend for  her  ideas  with  muskets,  and  outside  the  Union,  —  leaving  us 
the  government,  and  taking  herself  the  part  of  a  rebel.  She  has 
often  announced,  —  in  the  last  instance  by  the  lips  of  Jefferson 
Davis,  —  that  the  cause  was  not  lost,  and  must  be  won  by  getting 
possession  of  the  government,  and  leaving  us  in  the  opposition. 
Such  is  the  present  plot.  That  Mr.  Greeley  sees  it,  would  never 
prevent  his  aiding  it.  That  Mr.  Sumner  does  not  see  it,  is  to  me 


284        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

matter  of  profound  astonishment.  At  such  a  moment  the  regular 
Republican  party  becomes  again  the  accepted  and  only  instrument 
of  resistance,  and  Grant  represents  loyalty  as  Lincoln  did  in  1861. 
I  do  not  care  for  his  defects,  were  they  ten  times  greater.  Chat- 
ham and  Junius  rightfully  forgot  even  the  infamy  of  Wilkes,  when 
he  stood  the  representative  and  symbol  of  the  rights  of  a  British 
subject.  Even  if  I  accepted  Mr.  Simmer's  portrait  of  Gen.  Grant, 

—  which  in  some  sense  is  true,  but  in  no  sense  is  the  whole  truth, 

—  I  should  still  vote  for  him  against  a  rebellion  at  the  ballot-box, 
to  which  disloyalty  gives  all  the  strength,  and  childish  credulity 
all  the  character. 

To  stop  now  for  criticism  of  such  faults  as  those  of  Gen.  Grant, 
is  like  blaming  a  man's  awkwardness  when  he  is  defending  you 
against  an  assassin. 

In  proof  that  the  conspiracy  I  charge  is  real,  and  no  fiction,  I 
need  not  cite  Jefferson  Davis's  last  speech,  or  the  confession  of 
Mr.  Greeley's  adherents.  Every  impartial  man  who  comes  to  us 
from  the  South  bears  witness  that  the  mass  of  Southern  whites  are 
wholly  unchanged  in  opinion,  and  ready  for  another  revolt  when- 
ever the  way  opens.  The  wide-spread  organization  of  the  Ku- 
Klux  shows  the  same  thing.  That  organization  existed,  only 
because  public  opinion  there  cheered  it  on ;  and,  in  suppressing  it, 
our  government  had  no  tittle  of  help  from  the  former  rebels.  All 
this  was  to  be  expected.  It  would  be  contrary  to  history  and 
experience  were  it  otherwise.  To  put  the  slightest  faith  in  the 
protestations  of  copperheads  and  secessionists,  made  only  to  get 
office,  is  building  on  a  quicksand.  With  the  exception  of  Mr.  Sum- 
ner,  no  leading  Republican  does  really  put  any  faith  in  those  pro- 
testations. Theirs  is  not  a  case  of  delusion.  They  are  hypocrites, 
not  dupes.  They  know  well  the  plot,  and,  for  the  sake  of  office, 
are  willing  to  help  it,  and  risk  the  consequences.  They  know  that 
Mr.  Greeley's  election  means  the  negro  surrendered  to  the  hate  of 


NEAEING   THE  END.  285 

the  Southern  States,  with  no  interference  from  the  nation  in  his 
behalf ;  that  it  means  the  Constitutional  amendments  neutralized 
by  a  copperhead  Congress,  our  debt  tampered  with,  and  our  bonds 
fallen  twenty  per  cent  in  every  market.  The  Democratic  million- 
naire  who  is  willing  to  risk  this  has  already  "hedged."  He  holds 
millions  of  Confederate  bonds,  and  is  plotting  to  make  on  them 
more  than  enough  to  pay  four  times  over  for  all  he  loses  on  the 
national  securities,  and  then  safely  laugh  at  the  small  bondholders 
he  has  duped. 

Observe  that  I  count  as  Mr.  Greeley's  allies  only  the  copper- 
heads of  the  Democratic  party.  It  is  loose  talk  to  say  he  has  joined 
the  Democrats :  such  a  statement  is  an  insult  to  the  Democracy. 
The  exact  truth  is,  he  has  joined  the  copperhead  wing  of  the  De- 
mocracy, its  worst  element.  They  are  his  reliance. 

I  know  some  honest  war-Democrats  wish  to  change  their  base, 
and  accept  heartily  the  result  of  the  war.  All  honor  to  them !  But 
their  place  is  not  with  Greeley,  but  with  Grant.  They  fought  at 
his  side:  there  they  should  stand  to-day.  I  know  it  is  hard  to 
confess  mistakes,  but  I  practise  what  I  preach. 

If  Gen.  Grant  is  set  aside,  who  is  offered  us  in  his  place? 
Horace  Greeley.  I  need  not  tell  you,  my  friends,  what  Horace  Gree- 
ley is  :  we  abolitionists  knew  him  only  too  well  in  the  weary  years 
of  our  struggle.  He  had  enough  of  clear,  moral  vision  to  see  the 
justice  of  our  cause ;  but  he  never  had  courage  to  confess  his  faith. 
If  events  had  ever  given  him  the  courage,  he  never  would  have  had 
principle  enough  to  risk  any  thing  for  an  idea.  A  trimmer  by 
nature  and  purpose,  he  has  abused  even  an  American  politician's 
privilege  of  trading  principles  for  success.  But  for  lack  of  ability 
he  would  have  been  the  chief  time-server  of  his  age.  I  never  knew 
till  now  any  of  his  eulogists  so  heedless  and  undiscriminating  as 
even  to  claim  that  he  was  a  sincere  man.  As  for  his  honesty  —  for 
twenty  years  it  has  been  a  byword  with  us  that  it  would  be  safe  to 


286        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

leave  your  open  purse  in  the  same  room  with  him ;  but,  as  for  any 
other  honesty,  no  one  was  ever  witless  enough  to  connect  the  idea 
with  his  name. 

Mr.  Sumner  trusts  him  as  "a  lifetime  abolitionist."  This  is 
certainly  news  to  you  and  me.  You  and  I  know  well,  when  aboli- 
tionist was  a  term  of  reproach,  how  timidly  he  held  up  his  skirts 
'about  him,  careful  to  put  a  wide  distance  between  himself  and  us. 
You  will  find  few  working  abolitionists,  who  stood  in  the  trenches 
from  1840  to  1860,  willing  to  trust  the  negro  race  to  Horace  Gree- 
ley.  I  can  remember  the  day  when  he  and  his  fellow-Republicans 
quoted  our  criticisms  upon  them  as  certificates  that  they  were  no 
abolitionists.  We  can  give  him  just  such  a  certificate  now,  with 
a  clear  conscience.  Judged  by  the  files  of  "  The  Tribune  "  itself, 
there  never  was  an  hour  when  Horace  Greeley  could  have  been 
trusted  with  the  care  of  the  black  man's  rights. 

No  man  has  known  better  than  he,  how  to  manufacture  politi- 
cal and  pecuniary  success  out  of  the  convictions  of  other  men. 
For  himself  he  never  had  a  conviction.  Men  contrast  his  former 
praise  of  Gen.  Grant  with  his  fault-finding  now.  Neither  his 
praise  nor  his  blame  is  of  any  account.  Neither  comes  from  the 
heart.  Both  are  measured  and  weighed  out  with  shrewd  calcula- 
tion for  effect.  Examine  the  files  of  "  The  Tribune,"  and  you  will 
see,  that,  whenever  men's  convictions  on  any  subject  got  a  keen 
edge,  Mr.  Greeley  was  always  ready  to  blunt  them  with  a  com- 
promise. He  is  only  acting  now  the  part  he  has  always  played. 
Men  laugh  when  some  stirring  and  loyal  sentence  is  quoted  from 
"The  Tribune"  of  1862  or  1864,  and  Horace  Greeley  immediately 
proves  that  he  did  not  write  it.  But  you  and  I  always  knew  that 
three-quarters  of  the  loyalty  of  "  The  Tribune  "  was  smuggled  into 
it  in  his  absence,  or  in  spite  of  him.  If  his  letters  and  communi- 
cations to  Lincoln,  during  the  dark  years  of  1862  and  1863,  are 
ever  published,  the  world  will  see  what  you  and  I  have  always 


NEAEING   THE  END.  287 

known,  that  lie  could  hardly  have  aided  the  Confederacy  more, 
unless  he  had  enlisted  in  its  ranks,  or  taken  a  seat  in  its  cabinet. 

If,  as  Mr.  Sumner  says,  Mr.  Greeley  is  a  "  lifetime  abolitionist," 
how  comes  it,  that,  till  within  three  years,  Mr.  Sumner  hardly 
ever  got  a  kind  word,  and  never  had  any  hearty  support,  from  "  The 
Tribune  "  ?  How  often  have  Mr.  Sumner's  friends  heard  him  ex- 
patiate at  length  on  this  point  1  On  the  floor  of  Congress  he  has 
stood,  for  many  a  year,  the  incarnation  of  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment. But  he  has  again  and  again  complained,  that,  instead  of 
giving  him  any  support,  "  The  Tribune  "  has  constantly  belittled 
his  efforts,  and  put  obstacles  in  his  way;  cheering  his  opponents, 
and  carping  at  his  measures,  or,  at  best,  damning  them  with  faint 
praise.  My  recollection  of  these  well-grounded  complaints  is  so 
fresh,  that  I  look  at  Mr.  Sumner's  picture  of  Mr.  Greeley  with 
unfeigned  astonishment.  Even  the  supposed  conversion  of  the 
Southern  rebels  is  not  so  wonderful  as  that  of  "  The  Tribune  "  into 
a  supporter  of  Charles  Sumner. 

Doubtless  we  could  find  a  man  who  would,  even  if  elected  by 
rebels,  still  use  them  for  his  own  purposes.  And  it  is  possible, 
that,  in  rare  moments  of  exceptional  courage  or  virtue,  Mr.  Greeley 
may  dream  of  doing  so.  But,  in  cool  and  sane  moments,  he  knows 
he  is  their  tool,  and  is  contented  to  be  so.  Every  man  of  common 
sense  sees,  that  of  course,  if  copperheads  and  secessionists  lift  Mr. 
Greeley  into  the  White  House,  they  will  claim  —  and  it  is  now 
understood  that  they  shall  have  —  their  full  share  in  shaping  the 
policy,  and  filling  the  offices,  of  the  administration.  They  are  no 
bunglers,  but  shrewd  at  a  bargain,  and  sure  to  get  good  security 
for  a  promise.  The  corner-stone  of  their  policy  is,  to  repudiate  our 
debt,  or  assume  their  own.  We  shall  surely  hear  that  advocated. 
We  shall  probably  see  Jefferson  Davis  in  the  Senate,  and  certainly 
have  his  agents  in  the  cabinet.  No  doubt  he  will  be  consulted  in 
the  construction  of  the  cabinet.  This  is  to  put  in  peril  all  the 


288        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

war  has  gained.  I  am  not  ready  for  such  an  experiment.  An  old 
friend  now  residing  in  Georgia,  who  stood,  rifle  in  hand,  in 
Kansas  all  through  that  fight,  told  me,  just  after  the  Cincinnati 
convention,  — 

"  Sir,  before  Grant  arrested  those  twenty  Ku-Klux  in  North 
Carolina,  I  never  slept  without  a  loaded  musket  at  my  bed-head, 
and  never  ventured  into  the  village  unless  fully  armed.  Since 
that  stern  interference  in  North  Carolina,  I,  even  afar  off' in  Georgia, 
sleep  and  walk  about  as  safe,  careless,  and  free  as  you  do  here." 

"If  Greeley  is  elected,  I  suppose,"  said  I,  "you'll  load  those 
revolvers  again." 

"  Never.  I  know,  by  Southern  boast,  what  that  election  means. 
I'll  never  risk  living  in  Georgia  under  Greeley.  I'll  sell  out,  and 
come  North." 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  a  loyal  man  in  the  South !  That  is 
how  it  looks  in  Georgia  1 

Gentlemen,  I  have  another  interest  in  Grant's  re-election.  The 
anti-slavery  cause  was  only  a  portion  of  the  great  struggle  between 
capital  and  labor.  Capital  undertook  to  own  the  laborer.  We 
have  broken  that  up.  If  Grant  is  elected,  that  dispute,  and  all 
questions  connected  with  it,  sink  out  of  sight.  All  the  issues  of 
the  war  are  put  beyond  debate,  and  a  clear  field  is  left  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  labor-movement.  I  do  not  count  much  on  the 
recognition  of  that  movement  by  the  Republican  convention, 
though  I  gratefully  appreciate  it.  But  T  see  in  the  bare  success 
itself,  of  Gen.  Grant,  the  retiring  of  old  issues,  and  the  securing  of 
a  place  for  new  ones. 

If  Greeley  is  elected,  we  shall  spend  the  next  four  years  in 
fighting  over  the  war-quarrels,  constitutional  amendments,  negroes' 
rights,  State  rights,  repudiation,  and  Southern  debts.  And  we  shall 
have  besides  a  contemptuous  ignoring  of  the  labor-question.  Its 
friends  were  at  Cincinnati.  The  convention  scorned  their  appeals, 


NEAEING   THE  END.  289 

and  Mr.  Schurz  himself  affirmed  that  labor  was  "not  a  live  issue." 
President  Grant  means  peace,  and  opportunity  to  agitate  the  great 
industrial  questions  of  the  day.  President  Greeley  means  the 
scandal  and  wrangle  of  Andy  Johnson's  years  over  again,  with 
secession  encamped  in  Washington. 

The  saddest  line,  to  me,  of  Mr.  Sumner's  letter,  was,  where  he 
warns  you  colored  men  not  "  to  band  together  in  a  hostile  camp, 
and  keep  alive  the  separation  of  races  " !  The  negro,  robbed,  tor- 
tured, murdered,  trodden  under  foot,  defenceless  in  unresisting 
submission  —  who  has  the  heart  to  charge  him  with  an  iota  of  the 
guilt  of  "keeping  alive  the  separation  of  races"?  Surely  this 
lamb  has  never  shown  any  hate,  or  any  undue  prejudice,  against 
the  wolf.  The  senator  used  to  think  all  the  fault  was  on  the  other 
side. 

"  We  put  aside,  with  the  scorn  it  deserves,  the  insult  implied  in 
preaching  to  us  forgiveness  and  conciliation.  Andersonville  and 
Libby  Prison  are  still  living  horrors.  Besides  the  thousands  who 
were  starved  there,  hundreds  still  drag  out  weary  lives  in  our 
streets,  poisoned  all  through  by  that  dread  cruelty.  The  graves  of 
seven  white,  native  Georgian  loyal  men,  ruthlessly  shot  down  in 
the  streets,  are  hardly  yet  covered.  The  first-born  of  a  hundred 
thousand  households  are  still  freshly  mourned.  Till  within  a  year, 
throughout  half  the  South,  the  negro  was  robbed,  tortured,  and 
murdered  with  impunity ;  the  Southern  press  glorying  in  the  atroci- 
ties. Meanwhile  —  thanks  to  the  unparalleled  mercy,  the  unutter- 
able generosity,  of  the  nation  —  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
Confederate  soldiers  enjoy  to-day  all  the  rights  they  had  before 
the  war.  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  fellow-assassins,  the  real  jailers 
of  Andersonville  and  Libby,  — 

"  Shame  on  those  cruel  eyes, 
That  bore  to  look  on  torture, 
And  dared  not  look  on  war! " 


290        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

still  live,  unharmed,  in  peaceful  possession  of  every  right  the  law 
can  give,  except  that  of  lifting  their  hands  against  the  government 
which  has  spared  them.  I  dare  not  affix  the  epithet  I  think  fitting 
to  that  mood  of  mind,  which  deems  it  necessary  and  becoming  to 
preach  to  such  a  community  the  duty  of  forgiveness  ! 

We  do  forgive.  We  have  forgiven.  But  duty  to  the  dead, 
and  to  the  negro,  forbids  us  to  trust  power  to  any  hands,  without 
undoubted,  indubitable  certainty  that  such  hands  are  trustworthy. 
If  we  fail  in  this  caution,  we  shall  only  have  decoyed  the  negro 
into  danger,  and  left  him  doubly  defenceless.  I  wish  my  voice 
could  be  heard  by  every  colored  man  down  to  the  Gulf,  —  not  be- 
cause they  need  my  advice.  No :  they  understand  and  see  the  dan- 
ger. But  I  should  like  to  rally  them  to  help  us,  a  second  time, 
to  save  the  nation.  I  should  say  to  them,  "  Vote,  every  one  of  you, 
for  Grant,  as  you  value  property,  life,  wife,  or  child.  If  Greeley 
is  elected,  arm,  concentrate,  conceal  your  property,  but  organize 
for  defence.  You  will  need  it  soon,  and  sadly." 

Workingmen,  rally  now,  to  save  your  great  question  from  being 
crowded  out,  and  postponed  another  four  years. 

Soldiers,  at  the  roll-call  in  November,  let  no  loyal  man  fail  to 
answer  to  his  name.  We  decorate  our  loyal  graves  with  worse 
than  empty  ceremonies,  if,  over  them,  we  clasp  hands  with  still  re- 
vengeful enemies.  When  parties  and  politicians  betray  us,  do 
you  rally,  as  you  did  before,  and  under  the  same  great  captain,  to 
save  the  State. 

If  Grant  is  defeated,  I  am  not  sure  we  shall  see  traitors  in  the 
Capitol,  parting  the  nation's  raiment,  and  casting  lots  for  its  flag. 
But  we  are  sure  to  see  Congress  full  of  traitors,  and  in  the  White 
House  their  tool.  Let  every  man  who  would  avert  that  danger 

vote  for  Grant. 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

In  September  Mr.  Phillips  followed  Gen.  Butler  in 


NEAEING   THE  END.  291 

a  speech  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  and  again  advocated  the  elec- 
tion of  Grant.     He  began,  — 

"  I  shall  not  weary  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen.  I  shall  not  run 
any  risk  of  wearying  you,  even  by  detaining  you ;  because  there  is 
one  element  in  Gen.  Butler's  oratory  to  which  every  one  of  you 
will  bear  witness  now,  —  that  he  does  not  leave  any  thing  for  his 
successor  to  say.  On  the  platform  as  in  the  camp,  he  cleans  up  so 
thoroughly  and  economically  that  there  is  nothing  left  to  the  gen- 
eral that  comes  after  him.  There  was  one  general  once  that  under- 
took to  rule  New  Orleans  after  he  had  left  it,  and  the  record  says 
he  made  a  botch  of  it.  I  do  not  propose  to  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  my  illustrious  predecessor.  I  do  not  propose  to  add  an  appen- 
dix to  that  earnest,  sincere,  eloquent,  exhaustive,  and,  I  think, 
unanswerable,  argument.  Why,  then,  you  may  ask,  are  you  here  ?  I 
am  not  a  Republican.  I  never  found  myself  before  on  a  Republi- 
can platform.  When  I  came  here  to-night,  as  some  of  you  know  full 
well,  I  came  to  the  Republican  platform  at  a  moment  when  the 
greatest,  the  oldest,  and  most  honored  friend  (Gen.  Butler)  of  my 
life  has  quitted  it.  Why  do  I  come  here  ?  I  owe  nothing  to  the 
Republican  party :  I  ask  nothing  of  it  individually.  I  came  here 
honestly,  sincerely,  from  a  full  heart,  because  I  think  that  to-day 
the  great  conflict  is  safe  nowhere  but  in  the  Republican  party.  If 
I  thought  there  were  a  question,  if  I  thought  it  a  matter  upon 
which  to  an  honest  man  there  could  be  an  honest  difference  of 
opinion,  you  would  not  see  me  here. 

"  You  know  me,  some  of  you,  for  more  than  thirty  years ;  for  in 
your  presence  I  have  carried  my  heart  on  my  sleeve,  known  and 
read  of  all  men.  You  never  heard  me  preach  a  rash  confidence  in 
a  President :  you  never  heard  me  ask  you  to  put  confidence  in  a 
political  party.  If  I  have  had  any  mission  in  the  thirty  years  of 
my  Arab  life,  —  my  hand  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand 


292        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

against  me,  —  it  was  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  the  safety  of  distrust. 
I  came  to-night,  to  say  to  my  fellow-citizens,  Pour  out  your  hearts 
like  water,  and  hold  up  your  hands,  for  Gen.  Grant.  He  repre- 
sents loyalty  to-day,  and  salvation  after  that.  It  is  not  the  man  :  I 
am  not  going  to  enumerate  his  faults;  I  know  them:  I  am  not 
going  to  catalogue  his  defects,  for  they  are  patent.  I  know  all  that 
can  be  said  as  a  laboring  man,  as  a  temperance  man,  as  an  aboli- 
tionist, as  a  business  man,  of  petty  criticism  against  the  govern- 
ment. I  know  Grant  was  said  to  have  been  drunk  years  ago,  but 
•so  was  Gratz  Brown  this  year :  and  I  know  that  Horace  is  said  to 
be  a  teetotaler ;  so  is  Henry.  It  is,  after  all,  six  of  one,  and  half 
a  dozen  of  the  other.  As  a  temperance  man,  if  there  were  time  to 
note  the  difference  between  the  two  tickets,  I  think  it  would  take  a 
Philadelphia  lawyer  and  a  microscope  of  six  million  times  magni- 
fying power  to  find  it  out.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  individual  faults 
to-day. 

"  If  Greeley,  with  all  his  faults,  with  all  his  nonsense,  with  all  his 
weakness,  —  a  bit  of  wet  brown  paper  instead  of  a  man,  —  had  been 
nominated  by  the  loyal  party  of  these  States ;  if  the  men  that  went 
up  to  Philadelphia  representing  peace,  honesty  in  the  payment  of 
the  debt,  protection  for  every  citizen,  the  law  from  Portland  to  New 
Orleans  and  San  Francisco,  had  chosen  to  nominate  Mr.  Greeley,  — 
I  should  have  said,  *  You  run  a  great  risk  to  take  a  blind  pilot  on  a 
stormy  night ;  but  go  ahead,  gentlemen ;  I  trust  the  good  ship.  I 
believe,  even  with  him,  we  shall  weather  the  storm.'  But  when  a 
party  gathers  together  made  up  of  every  element  that  the  country 
has  had  reason  to  dread  for  the  last  twenty  years  past,  with  a  man 
at  its  head  who  never  knew  his  own  mind  six  days  consecutively, 
I  do  not  believe  it.  I  do  not  look  at  the  man.  I  see  behind  him 
the  elements,  the  representatives  of  all  the  country  has  reason  to 
dread.  Now,  if  I  were  telling  you  of  the  two  men,  I  should  go  back 
to  two  words  of  Old  English  which  common  men  use  very  clumsily 


NEAEING   THE  END.  293 

and  loosely.  You  hear  a  man  talking  sometimes,  who  has  heard 
that  his  brother  has  found  a  million  dollars ;  and  he  says,  '  I  am 
very  much  disappointed.'  He  means  he  is  surprised.  You  hear 
another,  who  has  heard  that  a  noted  criminal  has  been  arrested ;  and 
he  says  he  is  surprised.  Now,  when  he  is  disappointed,  it  means 
that  a  man  falls  below  his  expectations.  To  be  surprised  means 
that  a  man  gives  you  thought. 

"  I  have  known  Mr.  Greeley  for  forty  years,  and  in  every  six 
months  of  those  forty  years  I  have  been  horribly  disappointed  in 
him.  Failure  after  failure  to  meet  the  crises  that  have  summoned 
him  to  manhood  did  not  grind  out  faith  in  him,  in  my  foolish  confi- 
dence. I  still  continued  in  the  crazy  hope  that  a  point  would  be 
reached  by  and  by  where  the  man  would  be  found  to  have  a  prin- 
ciple. It  never  has  been.  Our  friend  Greeley  has  sacrificed  all 
his  life  to  save  the  remainder.  He  stands  to-day  the  representative 
of  every  principle  he  has  denounced :  no  man  can  deny  it.  On 
the  contrary,  I  acknowledge  I  am  the  same  man  who  came  here  in 
1869,  and  lectured  here,  —  "  After  Grant,  what  ?  "  —  and,  every  hour 
since,  I  have  not  been  disappointed  in  Gen.  Grant :  I  have  been  sur- 
prised. As  Gen.  Butler  has  said,  it  is  not  a  question  of  men.  The 
question  is  the  last,  perhaps  —  and  I  am  not  sure  it  is  that  —  but 
one  of  the  last  struggles  of  a  defeated  section  to  place  itself  at  the 
head  of  the  government.  Now,  if  I  have  studied  any  thing  in  my 
life,  it  is  the  temper  and  character  of  the  Southern  political  leaders, 
and  the  Democratic  leaders  that  followed  with  them  at  the  North. 
If  I  know  any  thing,  I  pretend  to  know  that ;  for  I  summered  it 
and  wintered-it  with  all  the  intellect  God  gave  me  ever  since  I  have 
been  a  man  :  and  I  say,  as  my  judgment  —  with  no  honesty  in  the 
mere  politics  of  the  Republican  party  —  I  say  that  no  sane  man 
can  say  that  this  is  not  an  attempt,  with  the  sanction  of  Horace 
Greeley,  of  the  Southern  States,  to  do  exactly  what  they  did  in  the 
time  of  Andy  Johnson,  —  to  get  back  in  disguise,  and  get  control  of 


294        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

the  government.  I  know  what  a  converted  Democrat  is.  We  had 
one  of  them.  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  converted  Democrat.  Do 
you  want  another?  We  did  not  lose  four  years  with  him.  We 
lost  the  golden  hour  of  the  rebellion:  we  lost  the  harvest  of 
victory. 

"  The  South  outwitted  us  :  she  showed  the  greater  statesmanship. 
When  the  question  was  confiscation,  when  the  question  was  arrange- 
ment on  the  basis  of  security,  when  in  the  generous  impulse  of  a 
triumphant  moment  the  American  people  were  ready  to  forgive, 
she  foisted  a  converted  Democrat  upon  us ;  and  in  those  four  years 
we  lost  fifty  per  cent  of  the  value  which  the  hundred  thousand 
fresh-born  graves  and  the  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars  had 
earned.  I  know  what  a  converted  Democrat  is.  I  do  not  call  my 
friend  the  general  [Gen.  Butler]  a  converted  Democrat.  I  call 
him  a  sifted  Democrat ;  since  1861  was  the  great  sieve  that  took  the 
promiscuous  mass  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  sifted  it,  the  pure 
flour  from  the  chaff.  Every  man  that  answered  to  that  bugle-call 
of  national  necessity,  every  true  bit  of  metal  that  the  magnet  of 
the  nation's  danger  drew  out  of  the  mass,  like  Gen.  Dix  and  Gen. 
Butler,  is  a  sifted  Democrat.  That  was  a  thorough  sifting.  There 
is  nothing  but  chaff  left  in  what  was  the  Democracy  after  that. 
There  would  be  no  use  in  having  a  second  sifting,  —  none  whatever. 
You  know  that  the  copperhead  of  your  neighborhood  is  not  any 
different  now  from  last  year.  You  would  not  trust  him  with  the 
care  of  your  martyred  dead  :  you  would  not  absent  yourselves  from 
the  polls,  and  put  into  his  hand  the  national  debt.  You  know  that 
as  well  as  I  do.  Multiply  that  man  by  five  or  six  millions,  and  he 
is  the  Democratic  party  that  went  up  to  Cincinnati.  A  man  with 
half  an  eye  open  can  see  it,  j  ust  as  he  could  see  that  Mr.  Greeley 
was  their  candidate  before  the  convention  was  held.  As  long  ago 
as  the  12th  of  May,  I  said  that  Horace  Greeley  was  the  secession 
candidate.  ( The  Tribune '  laughed  at  me :  some  of  the  newspapers 


NEAEING   THE  END.  295 

^aid,  '  That  is  one  of  Phillips's  follies.'    But  it  turned  out  to  be  so, 
and  the  disguise  that  was  used  was  of  the  very  slimmest." 

After  a  brief  reference  to  Gen.  Butler's  efforts  to 
pass  the  Ku-klux  bill  through  Congress,  Mr.  Phillips 
continued,  — 

"  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  very  serious  generation  to  live  in.  There  is 
no  boys'  play  left  for  us.  God  laid  on  this  generation  the  burden 
of  weeding  out  the  slave-system.  They  did  it  with  the  sacrifice  of 
wealth  and  blood  such  as  no  nation  has  seen.  He  lays  upon  us 
now  the  burden  of  watchfulness.  Mr.  Sumner  has  said,  that  revo- 
lutions never  go  back.  That  is  true  indeed  of  centuries,  but  it  is 
terribly  false  of  a  dozen  years.  Poor,  sad,  overburdened  France  ! 
Why,  revolutions  have  been  going  back  and  back  for  years  and 
years.  Does  any  man  suppose  that  Horace  Greeley  is  foolish  enough 
to  imagine,  that,  if  the  Democratic  party  lift  him  into  the  White 
House,  they  will  not  dictate  his  cabinet  ?  Who  elects  him  ?  Lib- 
eral Republicans  ?  Where  are  they  ?  I  venture  to  say,  and  no  man 
says  it  with  a  sadder  heart,  that  the  great,  the  honored  name  of  the 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  governorship  of  this  State,  with  all 
its  undoubted  honesty,  will  not  take  a  thousand  votes  from  the 
Republican  party  next  November.  If  there  is  any  difference  in 
the  number  of  Democratic  votes  that  lift  him  into  notice,  it  will  be 
similar  to  the  one  that  lifted  Jack  Adams  into  his  place  last  year. 
Liberal  Republicanism  is  nothing  but  Ku-Kluxism  disguised ;  and 
behind  it  is  Jeff  Davis,  Banks,  and  other  men,  who  miscalculated 
their  chances.  There  is  one  man,  however,  who,  if  elected  to  the 
presidency,  would  have  strength  of  will  to  resist  the  demands  of 
the  Democracy.  I  believe  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  gov- 
ernorship is  so  thoroughly  persuaded  they  are  all  Liberal  Republi- 
cans who  would  support  him,  that,  if  he  were  to  be  placed  in  the 
White  House,  he  would,  in  the  sublime  serenity  of  his  content,  irn- 


296        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

agine  that  he  owed  nothing  to  the  Democratic  party.  He  would 
not  allow  a  point  in  very  strength  or  weakness ;  but,  from  the  unal- 
terable conviction  that  the  State  of  Massachusetts  owed  him  the 
chair,  he  would  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  his  way  undisturbed  by 
petty  calls." 

Mr.  Phillips  paid  a  high  tribute  to  the  pertinacity 
and  watchfulness  of  the  South,  bade  Republicans  be 
on  their  guard,  for  secession  never  slept,  and  concluded 
as  follows :  — 

"  The  reason  why  I  support  the  Republican  party,  is  that  to  my 
utter  surprise,  to  my  unutterable  surprise,  to  my  indescribable 
delight,  to  my  relief,  I  have  at  last  found  a  party  that  is  willing 
to  execute  all  the  laws  that  are  given  them.  It  is  for  that  reason 
that  I  say,  Long  live  Ulysses  Grant!  May  he  continue  to  be 
President  of  the  United  States  until  every  white  man  over  forty 
years  of  age  who  lives  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  has  been 
forever  put  into  the  ground !  " 

The  occasions  on  which  Mr.  Phillips  manifested  his 
sympathy  for  the  Irish  cause  are  so  numerous,  that 
volume  after  volume  could  be  filled  with  his  speeches 
upon  that  theme  alone.  Like  the  true  friend,  he  ever 
appeared  at  the  time  his  services  were  most  needed. 
When,  in  1873,  James  Anthony  Froude  came  over  from 
England  to  slur  the  Irish  name,  and  destroy  Irish  influ- 
ence, he  was  met  by  the  clear,  ringing  replies  of  Mr. 
Phillips  at  the  very  threshold ;  and  his  calumnies  were 
hurled  back  upon  him  with  fearful  force. 

Speaking  of  Froude's  visit  to  this  country,  and  an- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  297 

swering  the  falsehoods  of  that  apologizer  of  England's 
crimes,  Mr.  Phillips  said,  — 

"  I  think  Mr.  Froude's  arrival,  and  his  course  in  this  country, 
have  had  one  very  beneficial  effect :  they  have  lifted  the  Irish  ques- 
tion into  full  notice,  and  into  far  juster  appreciation  among  the 
American  people.  Mr.  Froude's  arrival  has  led  the  American 
journals  and  public  men  to  ask,  « Why  does  an  English  scholar 
refer  this  question  to  us  ? '  There  was  great  surprise  expressed 
that  he  had  not  chosen  some  other  topic.  If  he  is  a  historian,  as 
men  claim ;  if  he  is  a  brilliant  scholar,  as  certainly  he  is,  —  why 
not  choose,  from  the  abundant  treasure-house  of  English  subjects, 
something  of  deeper  interest,  and  of  greater  importance.  Men 
said  to  the  American  people,  *  What  have  we  to  do  with  the  rela- 
tions of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ?  '  Well,  I  was  never  surprised 
for  a  moment  that  Mr.  Froude  chose  this  special  question  to  lay 
before  the  grand  jury  of  the  American  people.  I  was  never  sur- 
prised that  any  Englishman  solicitous  for  the  good  name  of  his 
country,  or  any  patriotic  man  desirous  of  wiping  away  the  eclipse 
on  the  good  fame  of  England,  should  clutch  the  opportunity  to 
explain  to  the  world,  through  an  appeal  to  the  grand  jury  of  the 
American  people,  the  relations  between  his  own  country  and  Ire- 
land, and  the  reason  why  England,  up  to  this  moment,  has  failed 
in  doing  any  thing  noticeable  in  the  way  of  justice  or  statesman- 
ship toward  the  sister  island. 

"Just  look  at  it.  Two  years  ago,  there  was  a  great  war  in 
Europe.  France  was  ground  to  powder  under  the  heel  of  a  military 
power.  What  does  France  represent  ?  She  represents  ideas :  she 
represents  the  democratic  instinct  and  progress  of  Europe.  Ever 
since  the  days  of  Thomas  Jefferson  she  has  inspired  the  democracy 
of  Europe ;  and  it  would  hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say,  that, 
when  that  great  American  penned  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 


298        LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

dence,  he  borrowed  the  inspiration  of  it  from  France.  Ever  since, 
she  has  occupied  the  van  in  Europe  in  the  war  of  men  against 
institutions,  of  brains  against  military  power.  What  does  Prus- 
sia represent  ?  She  represents  the  re-organized  feudal  system  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  She  is  a  power  marshalled  into  form 
by  the  one  purpose  of  court  and  soldiers.  She  is  not  a  nation: 
she  is  an  army.  Her  great  public  schools  and  all  her  civil  life 
have  a  great,  if  not  primary,  purpose  in  the  design  to  make 
men  soldiers.  Every  man  of  the  population  —  banker,  mechanic, 
tradesman,  or  scholar,  —  every  thing  but  the  pulpit  —  goes,  for 
the  three  appointed  years,  into  the  camp,  to  be  disciplined  to 
arms;  and  Prussia's  policy  is  an  effort  to  drag  the  world  back 
three  hundred  years.  She  is  the  great  military  outgrowth,  the 
abnormal  monstrosity,  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  still,  for 
the  moment,  —  for  the  present  hour,  —  she  has  ground  France,  the 
representative  of  ideas,  to  powder  under  her  foot.  It  was  a  crisis, 
not  so  much  between  two  nations  as  between  two  civilizations.  It 
was  an  awful  struggle,  pregnant  with  most  enormous  results  to 
Europe.  Where  was  England? 

"When  Bismarck  smote  her  contemptuously  in  the  face,  in 
the  presence  of  all  Europe,  why  did  she  not  draw  her  sword? 
She  never  had  been  reluctant  to  draw  the  sword.  She  had  been 
the  great  intermeddler  for  the  last  three  centuries.  There  could 
not  be  a  crisis  in  the  remotest  corner  of  the  globe,  about  the  most 
insignificant  motive  in  the  world,  that  England  did  not  put  in  her 
mailed  hand.  Palmerston's  laurels  were  all  won  from  meddling  in 
other  people's  messes.  If  China  wished  to  give  up  opium,  Eng- 
Jand  wished  it  to  be  there.  If  Portugal  and  Spain  differed,  Can- 
ning must  send  his  fleet  to  watch  over  the  safety  of  Lisbon.  She 
never  knew  a  war  that  she  could  leave  alone.  Why  did  she  break 
the  great  historic  precedent  of  two  hundred  years  in  this  single 
instance  ? 


NEAEING   TEE  END.  299 

"  Seven  years  ago  I  was  hissed  in  the  Cooper  Institute  for  saying 
that  England  was  a  second-rate  power,  and  that  she  no  longer 
dared  to  take  a  place  among  the  first-class  powers  of  Europe. 
Now,  in  my  view,  the  reason  why  she  did  not  draw  the  sword  is 
twofold.  One  is,  that  she  can  hardly  trust  her  own  masses ;  but 
the  larger  and  closer  reason  is,  that  the  English  statesmen  know 
right  well  that  the  first  cannon-shot  they  dare  to  aim  at  any  first- 
rate  power,  Ireland  stabs  them  in  the  back. 

"  Seven  hundred  years  of  oppression  have  earned  the  traditional 
right  of  opposition,  whose  creation  is  four  millions  of  men,  every 
one  of  whom  hates  England  with  right  good  cause.  And  English 
statesmanship  knows  that  either  France,  Germany,  or  Russia  has 
only  to  land  twenty  thousand  men,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
stand  of  arms,  and  ten  millions  of  pounds,  in  Ireland,  and  England 
is  checkmated :  she  cannot  move  hand  or  foot. 

"Mr.  Froude  said,  with  great  truth  and  epigrammatic  terse- 
ness, that,  *  No  matter  how  long  God  waited,  the  wickedness  of  one 
generation  was  sure  to  be  punished  .by  the  weakness  of  another.' 
How  true  it  is,  that  the  wickedness  of  the  Edwards,  the  Henrys, 
the  Elizabeths,  and  the  Stuarts  is  punished  to-day,  in  the  face 
of  Europe,  by  the  weakness  of  Victoria,  checkmated  on  her 
throne.  I  do  not  wonder  at  all  that  the  thoughtful  English- 
man should  long  to  explain  to  the  world,  if  he  can,  how  the  steps 
by  which  his  country  has  been  brought  to  this  state  have  been 
inevitable ;  that  by  no  wit  of  statesmanship,  by  no  generosity  of 
high-toned  and  magnanimous  honor,  could  she  have  avoided  the 
path  in  which  she  is  treading.  If  Mr.  Froude  could  make  out 
that  proposition;  if  he  could  convince  the  world  through  the 
American  people  that  England  accepted  the  inevitable  fate  which 
the  geographical  proximity  of  Ireland  had  entailed  upon  her, — 
it  would  have  gone  half  way  to  wipe  out  the  blots  on  his  coun- 
try's fame.  I  do  not  wonder  he  should  make  the  attempt.  I 


300        LIFE  AND   TINES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

believe,  that  instead  of  England's  having  conquered  Ireland,  in 
the  true,  essential  statement  of  the  case,  as  it  stands  to-day,  Ireland 
has  conquered  England !  She  has  summoned  her  before  the  bar 
of  the  civilized  world,  to  answer  and  plead  for  the  justice  of  her 
legislation ;  she  has  checkmated  her  as  a  power  on  the  chess-board 
of  Europe ;  she  has  monopolized  the  attention  of  her  statesmen  ;  she 
has  made  her  own  island  the  pivot  upon  .which  the  destiny  of  Eng- 
land turns ;  and  her  last  great  statesmen  and  present  Prime  Minis- 
ter, Mr.  Gladstone,  owes  whatever  fame  he  has,  to  the  supposition 
that  at  last  he  has  devised  a  way  by  which  he  can  conciliate  Ire- 
land, and  save  his  own  country. 

"I  thank  Mr.  Froude  that  he  has  painted  the  Irishman  as  a 
chronic  rebel.  It  shows  that  at  least  the  race  knew  that  they  were 
oppressed,  and  gathered  together  all  the  strength  that  God  had  given 
them  to  resist.  They  never  rested  contented.  It  is  by  no  means, 
therefore,  a  surprise  that  a  patriotic  Englishman,  looking  back  on 
the  last  three  centuries,  should  long  to  justify  his  nation  and  his 
own  race,  after  having  conceited  that  it  has  all  the  brains,  and 
two-thirds  of  the  heart,  of  the  world.  It  volunteered  to  be  the 
guardian  of  this  obstinate  Ireland.  It  volunteered  to  furnish  a 
government  to  the  distracted,  ignorant,  poverty-stricken,  demoral- 
ized millions  of  Ireland.  It  has  been  three  hundred  years  at  the 
experiment ;  and  Mr.  Froude  told  us  the  other  evening,  that,  rather 
than  let  Ireland  go,  —  weary  of  their  long  failure,  —  rather  than  let 
Ireland  go,  they  would  exterminate  the  Irish  race !  What  a  con- 
fession of  statesmanship !  *  We  have  tried  for  seven  hundred  years 
to  manufacture  a  government,  and  at  the  end  of  it  our  alternative 
is  extermination ! ' 

"  Well,  you  see,  the  world  asks,  whence  comes  this  result  ?  Was 
the  English  race  incapable?  Did  it  lack  courage?  Did  it  lack 
brains  ?  Did  it  lack  care  ?  Did  it  lack  common  sense  ?  Did  it 
lack  that  discriminating  sagacity  which  knows  time  and  place? 


NEAEING   THE  END.  301 

What  is  the  reason  of  the  failure  ?  And,  of  course,  the  only  an- 
swer of  an  Englishman  who  is  unwilling  to  tear  down  the  great 
splendor  of  his  flag,  is,  to  find  the  cause  in  the  dogged  incapacity 
of  Ireland,  and  not  in  any  lack  of  his  own  country.  Mr.  Froude 
is  obliged  to  prove  that  the  Irish  were  left  by  God  unfinished,  and 
that  you  cannot,  by  any  wit  of  man,  manufacture  a  citizen  out  of 
an  Irishman.  He  is  shut  up  to  this  argument :  for,  unless  he 
proves  the  Irishman  a  knave,  he  is  obliged,  from  the  facts  of  the 
case,  to  confess  England  a  fool ;  and  that  is  the  grand  alternative. 
They  have  had  time  enough,  power  enough,  and  opportunity 
enough,  and  why  have  they  not  created  a  government  ?  Why  have 
they  not  conciliated  Ireland?  Why  have  they  not  satisfied  the  citi- 
zens of  the  world  that  the  task  has  been  accomplished  ?  Why  does 
Europe  cry  out  'Shame/  until  within  a  dozen  years?  Suppose 
that  we  should  remain  with  the  South  in  our  right  hand,  —  passive 
and  powerless  as  she  is  to-day, — that  we  should  remain  in  that  atti- 
tude for  one  hundred  years,  and  that,  at  the  end  of  it,  the  South 
was  just  as  defiant,  just  as  demoralized,  just  as  hostile,  and  just  as 
lacking  in  good  government,  and  the  mechanism  of  industrial  pros- 
perity, as  she  is  to-day,  what  would  be  the  fact,  patent  on  that 
showing  ?  Why,  that  we  were  incapable  of  the  task  we  had  as- 
sumed. 

"  That  is  where  Mr.  Froude  finds  England :  and  he  is  shut  up  — 
logically  speaking  —  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  proving  that  Ire- 
land lacks  the  elements  —  that  the  Celtic  race  lacks  the  elements — 
that  go  to  make  up  self-government,  statesmanship,  and  a  law- 
abiding  community ;  that  they  are  unwilling  to  associate  with  the 
great  movements  of  the  British  race.  He  comes,  therefore,  to  us 
with  that  purpose.  He  comes  to  excuse  England  on  the  ground 
of  Irish  incapacity.  Well,  it  was  a  marvellously  bad  choice  of  a 
jury :  for,  in  the  first  place,  there  were  a  number  of  logical,  middle- 
aged  gentlemen,  who  met  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  fourth  day  of 


302        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

July,  1776,  and  asserted  that  God  created  every  man  fit  to  be  a 
citizen ;  that  he  did  not  leave  any  race  so  half  made  up  and  half 
finished,  that  they  were  to  travel  through  the  cycle  of  seven  hun- 
dred years  under  the  guardianship  of  any  power.  And,  on  that 
fourth  day  of  July,  they  established  the  corner-stone  of  American 
political  faith,  that  all  men  are  capable  of  self-government ;  while 
the  whole  substratum  of  this  course  of  lectures,  by  this  eloquent 
British  scholar,  was  the  fact  that  God  left  Ireland  so  unfinished 
that  a  merciful  despotism  was  necessary." 

This  address  was  received  with  unbounded  applause, 
and  deserves  to  be  read  by  all  students  of  Irish 
wrongs. 

Mr.  Phillips  with  his  family  spent  the  summer  of  1873 
at  Swampscott.  For  several  months  he  gave  no  pub- 
lic utterance,  except  upon  certain  local  improvements 
about  Boston,  and  before  purely  lyceum  audiences. 
As  a  lecturer,  his  services  were  always  in  demand. 

On  the  15th  of  December  of  this  year,  the  New- 
England  Woman-suffrage  Association  had  a  celebra- 
tion at  Faneuil  Hall.  Never  was  a  finer-appearing  or 
more  intelligent  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  as- 
sembled in  "the  old  Cradle."  Col.  Higginson  pre- 
sided; and  addresses  were  made  by  Mr.  Phillips,  Mrs. 
Livermore,  James  Freeman  Clarke,  Fred  Douglass,  Mr. 
Garrison,  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone,  and  others.  The  following 
resolution  was  unanimously  adopted :  — 

"Whereas,  a  bill  has  just  been  introduced  into  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  by  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  to  disfranchise  the 


N EARING  THE  END.  303 

women  of  Utah,  and  subject  them  to  the  proscriptions  of  the 
common  law  of  England ;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  this  assembly  of  men  and  women  of  New 
England,  as  convened  in  Faneuil  Hall  to  celebrate  the  enfran- 
chisement of  the  Boston  Tea  Party,  unite  in  calling  upon  Congress 
to  modify  or  defeat  the  bill." 

On  Tuesday  evening  the  "  ladies'  tea-party  "  came  off 
in  the  hall,  Josiah  Quincy  presiding.  Speeches  were 
made  by  several  of  Boston's  favorites,  and  Mr.  Emerson 
read  a  characteristic  poem. 

In  the  spring  of  1874  Mr.  Phillips  lectured  several 
times  on  the  subject  of  temperance.  At  Tremont  Tem- 
ple he  began  by  saying,  — 

"This  is  the  largest  audience  that  I  have  seen  within  these 
walls  for  fourteen  years,  since  the  outbreak  of  the  great  Rebellion ; 
and  I  hope  it  foretells  the  outbreak  of  a  greater  rebellion  still,  —  of 
the  people  of  New-England  against  the  tyranny  of  the  grog-shop." 

Mr.  Phillips  spoke  very  frequently  on  this  impor- 
tant theme,  and  argued,  with  great  force,  against 
license,  and  for  a  complete  closing  of  the  rum-shops. 
He  believed  that  alcohol  was  the  cause,  not  only  in 
great  part  of  poverty  among  the  laboring-classes,  but 
also  of  corruption  in  high  places,  especially  in  the 
governments  of  large  cities. 

On  the  22d  of  July  Mr.  Phillips  addressed  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  George  J.  Holyoake,  on  the  "Labor 
Problem."  It  shows  that  its  author  thought  deeply, 
and  was  continually  studying  this  great  question. 


304        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

BOSTON,  July  22, 1874. 
To  G.  J.  HOLYOAKE. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  ought  long  ago  to  have  thanked  you  for  send- 
ing me  copies  of  your  pamphlets,  and  with  so  kind  and  partial  a 
recognition  of  my  co-operation  with  you  in  your  great  cause. 
That  on  Mill  was  due  certainly  to  a  just  estimate  of  him,  but  how 
sad  that  human  jackals  should  make  it  necessary!  Those  on  co- 
operation I  read  again  and  again,  welcoming  the  light  you  throw 
on  it;  for  it  is  one  of  my  most  hopeful  stepping-stones  to  a  higher 
future.  Thank  you  for  the  lesson  :  it  cleared  one  or  two  dark 
places — not  the  first  I  owe  you,  by  any  means;  for  I've  read 
every  thing  of  yours  I  could  lay  my  hands  on.  There  was  one 
small  volume  on  rhetoric,  "Methods  of  address,  hints  towards 
effective  speech,"  etc.,  which  I  studied  faithfully,  until  some  one, 
to  whom  I  had  praised  it  and  loaned  it,  acting,  probably,  on  some- 
thing like  Coleridge's  rule,  that  books  belong  to  those  who  most 
need  them,  never  returned  me  my  well-thumbed  essay,  to  my  keen 
regret.  Probably  you  never  knew  that  we  pirated  your  book. 
This  was  an  American  reprint,  wholly  exhausted,  —  proof  that  it 
did  good  service.  We  reprinted,  some  ten  years  ago,  one  of  your 
wisest  tracts,  "The  difficulties  that  obstruct  co-operation."  It  did 
us  yeomanly  service. 

I  wish  I  could  have  an  hour's  talk  with  you  on  this  labor 
and  capital  question,  —  one,  perhaps,  to  have  as  angry  an  agitation 
as  slavery  caused.  Wealth,  with  you,  governs ;  but  its  power  is, 
I  suppose,  somewhat  masked,  sometimes  countervailed  or  checked 
by  other  forces.  With  us  it  rules,  bare,  naked,  shameless,  undis- 
guised. Our  incorporated  wealth,  often  wielded  by  a  single  hand, 
is  fearful  with  direct,  and  still  more  with  indirect,  power.  We 
have  single  men  who  wield  four  hundred  million  dollars,  so  shaped 
that  towns,  counties,  States,  are  its  vassals.  Two  or  three  united 
railways  (one  president)  will  subject  a  State  to  their  will.  Vandor- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  305 

bilt  is  reported  to  say,  "  It  is  cheaper  and  surer  to  buy  Legislatures 
than  voters."  This  is  the  peril  of  universal  suffrage.  Then,  rum 
rules  our  great  cities  whenever  it  chooses  to  exert  its  power. 
The  sadness  of  the  whole  thing  is,  one  hardly  sees  whence  the 
cure  is  to  come.  I  believe  I  don't  see  Truly  our  movements 
demand  a  most  patient  faith.  I  never  expected  to  see  any  success 
of  our  anti-slavery  struggle.  Fortified  in  church,  state,  and  capi- 
tal, the  system  would  have  outlived  this  generation,  and  perhaps 
the  next,  with  ordinary  shrewdness  on  the  part  of  its  friends. 
The  gods  made  them  mad  on  their  way  to  destruction,  and  so 
hastened  it. 

Neither  shall  I  live  long  enough  to  see  any  marked  result  of 
our  labor-movement  here,  though  it  is  true  that  our  masses  ripen 
marvellously  quick;  but,  as  you've  said,  the  cliques,  jealousies, 
distrust,  and  ignorance  of  workingmen  are  our  chief  obstacles. 
Indeed,  we  sometimes  get  better  help  from  open-hearted  capital- 
ists. Your  ranks  are  infinitely  better  trained  than  ours  to  stand 
together  on  some  one  demand  just  long  enough  to  be  counted,  and; 
so  insure  that  respect  which  numbers  always  command  in  politics; 
where  universal  suffrage  obtains.  Then  we'd  have  all  the  brains 
of  the  land,  our  servants,  and  soon  gain  that  attention  which  is 
here  half  of  success.  But  I  suppose  all  this  is  familiar  to  you,  as 
well  as  the  strength  we  expect  from  related  questions,  —  finances, 
mode  of  taxation,  land,  tenure,  etc.  There'll  never  be,  I  believe 
and  trust,  a  class-party  here,  labor  against  capital,  the  lines  are  so 
indefinite,  like  dove's-neck  colors.  Three-fourths  of  our  popula- 
tion are  to  some  extent  capitalists ;  and,  again,  all  see  that  there  is 
really,  and  ought  always  to  be,  alliance,  not  struggle,  between  them. 
So  we  lean  chiefly  on  related  questions  for  growth  :  limitation  of 
hours  is  almost  the  only  special  measure.  But  enough. 

"  I  shall  beg  you  to  accept  a  volume  of  old  speeches,  printed 
long  ago,  because  it  includes  my  only  attempt  to  criticise  you, 


306        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

which  you  probably  never  saw  I  will  put,  when  I  mail  it,  the 
last  and  best  photograph  of  Sumner ;  and,  if  you  exchange,  I  will 
add  one  of 

Yours,  faithfully  and  ever, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  exact  and  definite  statement  of  Gen.  Sheridan, 
and  the  moderate  and  conclusive  message  of  President 
Grant  to  Congress,  relative  to  the  disorders  and  the 
action  of  the  military  in  Louisiana,  in  the  winter  of 
1874-75,  wrought  a  wonderful  effect  upon  public  sen- 
timent, causing  the  sustainers  of  the  administration  to 
be  prouder  than  ever  of  the  promptitude,  decision,  and 
humanity  of  their  officers,  while  it  forced  the  hasty 
and  inconsiderate  critics  in  the  Republican  ranks  to 
take  the  defensive,  and  at  least  taught  them  a  lesson 
to  beware  of  alliances  with  their  opponents. 

The  evidence  is  conclusive,  that  the  tactics  of  the 
white  Leaguers,  on  the  4th  of  January,  at  New  Orleans, 
was  the  commencement  of  a  plot  to  revolutionize  the 
State.  Fortunately  it  was  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the 
promptness  of  De  Trobriand  and  Sheridan.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  Gen.  Sheridan's  characterization  of  the 
"  white  rebels  "  of  Louisiana,  he  held  the  city  of  New 
Orleans  in  perfect  order  from  the  time  when  he  first 
entered  its  streets.  Gen.  Butler  was  the  city's  first 
"  monster :  "  Gen.  Sheridan  proved  to  be  the  second. 

The  decisive  action  of  Gen.  Sheridan  put  all  the 
rebellious  element  of  the  country  into  a  ferment ;  and 


NEAEING   THE  END.  307 

many  worthy  men  who  voted  for  Greeley,  or  who  did 
not  approve  all  the  measures  of  President  Grant,  were 
too  ready  to  be  panic-stricken  by  their  effervescence. 
Not  a  few  public  meetings  were  held  to  "rebuke  the 
administration." 

In  New  York  one  such  meeting  was  held  at  the 
Academy  of  Music,  at  which  William  Cullen  Bryant 
and  William  M.  Evarts  were  the  only  conspicuous  Re- 
publicans participating.  The  Democracy  were  present 
in  full  force,  and  were  profuse  in  their  resolutions  of 
censure. 

In  Boston  the  gathering  was  held  on  Jan.  15,  at 
Faneuil  Hall.  The  call  was  stimulated  by  Democrats, 
and  a  larger  proportion  of  nominal  Republicans  than 
was  the  case  in  New  York.  The  petition  to  the  city 
government  for  the  use  of  the  hall  had  one  hundred 
names,  a  large  proportion  written  in  one  hand,  and 
many  of  the  alleged  subscribers  with  no  residence  in 
Boston,  though  professing  to  be  legal  voters  in  the 
metropolis.  The  gathering,  save  so  far  as  the  Demo- 
cratic element  went,  was  virtually  a  failure,  the  speak- 
ing tame,  the  interruptions  quite  suggestive.  The 
marked  characteristic  was  the  absence  of  a  goodly 
portion  of  those  who  placed  their  names  to  the  call. 

The  most  remarkable  fact  to  be  recorded,  however, 
is,  that  the  meeting  was  turned  against  its  projectors 
by  its  attendants,  who  insisted  on  hearing  from  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  who,  quietly  standing  in  the  gallery,  was 


308        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

watching  the  development  of  the  plot  to  play  into  the 
hands  of  the  rebels  at  the  South,  and  rebel  sympa- 
thizers at  the  North ;  and  who,  with  masterly  logic  and 
eloquence,  carried  an  undoubted  majority  of  his  listen- 
ers with  him.  This  was  shown  by  the  responses  to 
his  various  points,  but  more  particularly  by  the  vote 
on  the  resolution  thanking  Grant  and  Sheridan,  where 
the  volume  of  affirmative  voices  was  equal  to  the  nega- 
tive, though  the  latter  were  given  with  more  explosive 
force  than  is  possible  with  the  sibilant  "yes."  Mr. 
Phillips's  argument  is  worthy  of  being  read  and  re-read 
by  all  students  of  the  history  of  that  period.1 

At  two  of  the  meetings  of  the  financial  department 
of  the  American  Social  Science  Association  in  March, 
Mr.  Phillips  gave  his  views  of  the  financial  problem. 
His  plan  for  bettering  the  state  of  affairs  was,  to,  1st, 
take  from  the  national  banks  all  right  to  issue  bills; 
2d,  to  let  the  nation  itself  supply  a  currency  ample 
for  all  public  needs ;  3d,  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest. 
He  objected  to  any  attempt  to  secure  a  specie  basis  as 
injurious.  Time  and  circumstances  alone,  he  thought, 
would  make  greenbacks  equal  to  gold,  —  yes,  better 
than  gold.  To  take  from  national  banks  all  right  to 
issue  bills,  and  to  oblige  them  to  return  what  bills  they 
had  within  a  reasonable  time,  would,  he  claimed,  put 
greenbacks  on  a  par  with  gold,  and  would  secure  the 

i  See  Phillips's  Speeches,  etc.,  2d  series. 


NEAEING   THE  END.  309 

government  enough  gold  to  meet  its  obligations  until 
that  happened.  Mr.  Phillips  would  allow  any  person 
to  do  what  banks  were  then  allowed  to  do,  —  that  is, 
to  deposit  national  bonds,  and  receive  from  the  nation 
greenbacks  in  exchange,  with  this  difference,  however, 
that  such  depositor  should  receive  the  full  amount  of 
the  bond,  and  pay  for  the  use  of  such  greenbacks  three 
or  four -per  cent  per  annum.  Why,  he  asked,  should 
not  an  individual  be  allowed  to  borrow  greenbacks  on 
a  bond,  as  well  as  banks?  Why  should  either  of  them 
be  allowed  this  privilege  without  paying  for  it?  Mr. 
Phillips  argued  that  the  high  rate  of  interest  was  the 
cause  of  business  depression,  and  only  by  its  reduction 
could  the  laboring  and  trading  classes  prosper. 

On  the  6th  of  August,  1875,  the  centennial  of  the 
birth  of  the  Irish  patriot,  Daniel  O'Connell,  a  grand 
celebration  was  held  in  the  Boston  Music  Hall.  By 
request,  Mr.  Phillips  delivered  an  oration  on  the  great 
Irishman.  It  was  a  wonderfully  eloquent  production, 
and  showed  the  orator's  powers  at  their  best.  It  has 
already  become  a  historic  document,  as  one  of  the  best 
and  most  truthful  analyses  of  the  agitator's  character 
that  has  ever  yet  received  the  honor  of  print.  One 
cannot  but  admire,  in  reading  it,  the  faithfulness  of 
Mr.  Phillips  to  his  convictions,  as,  before  that  audi- 
ence of  Irishmen,  Roman  Catholics,  and  Democrats,  as 
nearly  all  of  them  were,  he  elevated  the  character  of 
Martin  Luther,  securing  rapturous  applause  for  that 


310        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

great  reformer,  and  equally  did  justice  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause  as  exemplified  alike  by  O'Connell  in  past 
days,  and  the  colored  workmen  (who  sent  a  telegram 
to  the  meeting)  in  these. 

It  is  such  orations  as  these,  filled  with  pregnant 
thought,  and  eulogistic  of  men  who  have  unselfishly 
served  their  country,  that  the  young  men  of  to-day 
should  study  for  proper  fitting  for  the  responsibilities 
of  the  future.1 

During  the  years  1876-77,  the  life  of  Mr.  Phillips 
was  chiefly  that  of  a  public  lecturer  During  the 
season  he  travelled  far  and  wide,  and  spoke  before 
many  audiences.  To  chronicle  his  whereabouts  in 
these  months  would  be  a  task  without  a  purpose.  In 
many  places  his  voice  was  raised  in  behalf  of  the  cause 
of  Temperance,  —  a  theme  of  which  he  never  wearied. 
At  other  times  he  spoke  in  favor  of  preserving  the 
"  Old  South  Meeting-house  "  in  Boston,  which  many 
persons  of  severe  business  tact  were  desirous  of  seeing 
razed  to  the  ground.  Again,  he  recalled  before  several 
audiences  the  life  and  achievements  of  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell ;  spoke  on  education,  on  various  political  questions 
of  the  time ;  and  delivered  eulogies,  before  public  and 
private  assemblies,  on  Charles  Sumner,  and  other  con- 
temporaries who  had  passed  away. 

In  the  month  of  May,  1877,  he  delivered,  at  the  Old 

1  See  Phillips's  Speeches  and  Lectures,  2d  series. 


NEAR  ING   THE  END.  311 

South,  for  the  first  time,  his  exceedingly  eloquent  and 
entertaining  lecture  on  Sir  Harry  Vane.  It  was  re- 
peated before  numerous  audiences  in  Boston  and  else- 
where, and  with  the  exception  of  that  on  "The  Lost 
Arts,"  and  that  on  O'Connell,  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
brilliant  effort  of  the  sort  ever  prepared  by  the  orator. 
Mr.  Phillips  was  a  great  admirer  of  Vane,  and  made 
many  allusions  to  him  and  his  accomplishments  in  his 
public  speaking.  He  referred  to  him  notably  in  his 
famous  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  of  1881,  and  held  him 
up  as  a  bright  and  shining  example  for  youth.  "  It  is 
a  pity,"  said  Mr.  Phillips  to  the  present  writer  one  day, 
"that  we  have  no  readable  biography  of  Sir  Harry 
Vane !  Of  all  lives,  that  of  Vane,  the  first  Republican, 
most  merits  the  attention  and  study  of  young  Ameri- 
cans." 

During  the  autumn  of  1877  a  slight  effort  was  made 
to  induce  Mr.  Phillips  to  accept  a  nomination  for 
governor  of  the  State.  Several  letters  were  printed 
in  the  newspapers  on  the  subject,  but  the  effort  pro- 
gressed no  farther.  We  give  one  as  a  sample,  which 
contains  some  features  of  interest:  — 

"  Editor  '  Commonwealth,'  —  Were  it  not  for  the  habit  of  Mr. 
Phillips  of  allowing  his  name  to  be  used  by  Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry, 
and  Ms  sister,  we  verily  believe  he  might  be  elected  governor  this 
fall.  There  is  no  other  difficulty  in  the  way  whatever,  and  this  may 
itself  be  to  many  voters  a  strong  recommendation.  It  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Phillips  deliberately  throws  his  weight  into  the 


312        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

scale  of  the  weakest  side,  provided  it  be  deserving,  without?-  much 
care  for  himself.  Thus  he  has  come  to  be  considered  a  woman- 
suffragist,  prohibitionist,  labor-reformer,  and  soft- money  man,  with- 
out satisfactory  grounds.  On  the  currency  question  alone  has  he 
been  more  than  usually  explicit;  and  yet  it  cannot  be  shown  that 
he  differs,  in  any  sensible  degree,  from  the  majority  of  those  whose 
interests  are  not  involved  as  shippers  or  importers,  or  as  agents 
for  foreign  houses.  Until  our  people  have  definitely  acted  upon 
the  pending  question,  as  to  whether  the  government  greenback 
shall  or  shall  not  be  retained,  no  fault  can  be  found  with  Mr. 
Phillips.  He  thinks  it  ought  to  be.  So  do  we,  and  so  do  many 
thousands  more.  He  thinks  it  ought  to  be  kept  close  up  to  par : 
so  does  everybody.  But  in  arguing  in  favor  of  such  an  augmenta- 
tion of  volume  as  may  not  be  inconsistent  therewith,  under  the 
stress  of  increasing  business  and  population,  he  is,  as  usual,  a  little 
in  advance  of  the  rest  of  us  —  that  is  all.  It  may  transpire  that 
he  has  caught  hold  of  the  tail-end  of  a  largish-sized  fish,  which 
some  one  else  will  have  to  help  bring  to  land.  As  a  provision 
against  our  old-fashioned  periodical  panics,  it  is  the  only  one  that 
has  been  proposed,  so  far  as  we  know  ;  and,  indeed,  it  seems  hardly 
to  have  been  thought  of. 

"What  the  views  of  Mr.  Phillips  may  be  on  these  and  other 
matters  is  wholly  immaterial.  As  governor  he  could  neither  give 
us  greenbacks  nor  prohibition  if  he  desired  so  to  do.  It  is  simply 
a  complimentary  position  to  which  he  is  richly  entitled.  We 
should  have  no  fear  of  placing  Wendell  anywhere.  What  he  may 
say,  in  the  character  of  advocate,  is  one  thing :  what  he  would  do, 
as  a  sitting  magistrate,  is  quite  another.  We  would  like  to  see 
Wendell  elected  any  way.  It  is  not  quite  safe  to  say,  that,  in  the 
ensuing  quadrangular  fight,  he  may  not  be.  Certain  it  is,  that,  if 
every  man  in  the  Commonwealth  who  is  friendly  to  Mr.  Phillips 
should  vote  for  him,  he  would  carry  the  position  by  storm. 

"DEVOTEE." 


NEAEING   THE  END.  313 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  famous  Grant-Sum- 
ner  controversy  came  again  prominently  before  the 
public.  The  facts  in  the  case  are  now  too  well  known 
to  be  rehearsed.  The  subject  is  here  brought  forward 
for  the  purpose  of  placing  Mr.  Phillips's  "  statement " 
on  record.  In  a  lecture  which  he  delivered  in  Newton, 
Mass.,  he  said,  — 

"  Gen.  Grant  has  thrown  the  weight  of  his  name  against  Mr. 
Sumner.  I  have  a  great  respect  for  Gen.  Grant.  I  have  been  a 
Grant  man  when  Faneuil  Hall  hissed  me  for  it.  I  acknowledge 
his  merits.  I  have  no  doubt  of  his  sincere  patriotism.  But  Gen. 
Grant  must  remember,  that,  when  he  impeaches  history  and  the 
loftiest  patriotism,  there  are  blows  to  take  as  well  as  to  give,  and 
it  is  himself  that  provoked  the  quarrel.  I  have  always  known  Mr. 
Sumner  as  the  most  methodical,  laborious,  painstaking,  and  busi- 
ness-like member  of  the  Senate.  The  only  members  of  Congress, 
in  my  day,  who  have  had  a  regular  ledger,  or  docket,  of  public 
employment  and  engagements,  were  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler  and  Mr. 
Charles  Sumner.  They  were  the  only  two  members  of  Congress 
that  I  ever  knew  to  do  business  on  business  principles,  and  I  felt 
great  surprise  and  indignation  when  the  charge  of  negligence  of 
public  business  was  made  by  Gen.  Grant  against  Mr.  Sumner.  It 
was  only  outdone  by  the  intimation  that  Charles  Sumner  had  told 
a  falsehood.  As  Schurz  says  in  his  eulogy,  he  was  so  direct,  he 
could  not  carry  any  thing  by  a  flank  movement.  His  nature  was 
incapable  of  concealment.  He  had  none  of  the  usual  tact  of  men 
who  push  their  plans  in  the  world.  He  made  up  for  it  by  super- 
human energy,  with  which  he  bore  down  all  opposition. 

"  The  case  to  which  Gen.  Grant  refers  is  the  removal  of  Mr. 
Sumner  from  the  chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Rela- 
tions, which  he  says  was  proper  and  justifiable,  because  Mr.  Sumner 


314        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

was  negligent  of  public  duty,  and  the  confirmation  of  the  act  is 
found  in  the  charge  that  Mr.  Sumner  had  been  detected  in  a  false- 
hood. You  remember  Mr.  Sumner's  singular  fitness  for  that  chair- 
manship. Carl  Schurz  says  no  chairman  ever  came  to  the  office  so 
eminently  fitted  for  it.  This  is  the  man  removed  for  negligence, 
for  leaving  his  pigeon-holes  full  of  treaties.  You  remember  the 
position  of  Mr.  Fish  when  Sumner  was  deposed.  You  remember 
that  the  whole  Xorth  surged  with  hot  indignation.  When  did 
Gen.  Grant  first  find  this  out  against  Sumner?  Why  did  they  not 
think  of  this  before?  Why  never  utter  it  till  now?  If  the  oppo- 
sition papers  had  known  that  Mr.  Sumner  was  negligent,  would 
they  not  have  told  of  it  ?  No :  this  charge  is  an  after-thought.  If 
it  had  been  true,  we  should  have  heard  of  it  from  every  chamber 
of  types  in  the  country.  Go  to  the  Republican  papers  and  the 
anti-Grant  papers  :  they  never  heard  of  these  charges. 

"  But  Gen.  Grant  says  that  Mr.  Sumner  lied.  I  remember  the 
occasion.  Pardon  me  if  I  recite  it.  Mr.  Sumner  received  from 
the  hands  of  Gen.  Grant  the  treaty  of  San  Domingo,  —  from  Gen. 
Grant,  who  drove  up  to  his  door  while  he  was  sitting  with  some 
friends  at  dinner-table.  He  said  to  the  President,  '  I  will  look  at 
the  bill.  I  trust  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  supporting  the 
administration.'  They  were  words  of  politeness,  of  courtesy 
merely,  without  having  examined  the  instrument.  When  he 
went  home,  and  examined  it,  he  found  the  dark  treachery  to  the 
black  race.  The  next  day  he  found  Gen.  Grant,  and  took  back 
even  the  courteous  words.  He  pointed  out  the  objections  to  the 
treaty,  laid  before  him  the  impossibility  of  his  supporting  it,  and 
urged  a  reconsideration  of  the  action  of  the  administration.  Gen. 
Grant  listened  in  silence,  —  perhaps  I  might  say  sullen  silence. 
There  was  present  a  gentleman  who  has  been  in  Washington  for 
forty  years,  and  he  came  away  with  Mr.  Sumner.  As  they  came 
down  the  stairs  of  the  executive  mansion,  the  gentleman  remarked, 


NEAEING   THE  END.  315 

'  What  is  the  matter  with  the  President  ?  Do  you  think  he  under- 
stands you?  ' —  'I  should  think  he  might,'  replied  Sumner.  'No, 
he  doesn't/  was  the  response :  *  he  is  in  no  state  to  understand  any 
thing.'  If  Grant  never  heard  that  Sumner  took  back  that  courte- 
ous pledge  in  the  chamber  of  the  White  House,  it  was  because  his 
brain  refused  to  perform  its  office.  He  is  no  judge  of  the  veracity 
of  the  senator  from  Massachusetts. 

"  Gen.  Grant  also  refers  to  the  action  of  Mr.  Sumner  in  vindica- 
tion of  his  friend,  Mr.  Motley.  The  case  is  a  grave  one.  It  con- 
cerns one  of  the  noblest  Americans  who  upheld  our  fame  abroad. 
Gen.  Grant  intimates  that  he  was  no  American.  I  knew  Lothrop 
Motley  from  boyhood.  It  is  very  true,  that,  in  his  earlier  European 
life,  he  drank  too  deep  of  the  foreign  spirit.  In  1838  and  1840,  he 
was  largely  European.  But  at  his  return  to  this  country,  ten  years 
before  the  war,  he  told  me,  '  This  is  the  greatest  country  in  the 
world.  This  is  a  noble  nation  to  work  for.  It  is  the  noblest 
people.  I  have  come  back  from  Europe,  and  have  relearned  the 
value  of  America ;  have  come  home  one  of  the  humblest  laborers, 
to  make  justice  and  liberty  prosper.'  It  came  from  his  heart.  He 
was  made  over  into  a  most  enthusiastic  American.  I  was  not 
surprised  when  he  sprang  to  the  helm  in  the  columns  of  the  London 
'  Times.'  It  was  an  echo  of  the  old  talks  on  the  sidewalks.  When 
Grant  appointed  him  to  England,  he  appointed  the  warmest  Ameri- 
can heart  that  ever  beat. 

"  Now,  when  the  senator  has  been  in  Mount  Auburn  for  three 
years,  when  his  pen  cannot  write  a  denial,  nor  his  lips  utter  a ' 
rebuke,  now,  from  a  foreign  shore,  bearing  a  lie  on  its  lips,  comes 
this  accusation,  that  this  senator,  who  never  was  absent  from  the 
Senate  one  hour  (Mr.  Sumner  told  me,  in  the  last  year  of  his  life, 
' 1  never  was  absent  one  hour  till  the  last  twelvemonth ' ),  that  this 
senator  was  removed  for  negligence.  Eind  me  one  other  man  who 
has  not  lost  weeks,  or  even  months,  by  absence.  Mr.  Sumner 


816        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

refused  opportunities  to  make  hundreds  of  dollars  by  lecturing, 
because  he  was  bound  by  his  duties  in  the  Senate. 

"  In  the  quarrel  with  Mr.  Motley,  the  records  in  the  State  depart- 
ment, in  black  and  white,  prove  that  the  administration  stooped  to 
a  falsehood.  Mr.  Fish  exhorted  Mr.  Sumner  to  take  the  British 
mission,  — told  him  he  ought  to  go  to  London.  Six  months  later 
the  minister  was  recalled,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  leaned  too 
much  upon  the  opinion  of  a  great  Northern  senator.  Mr.  Simmer's 
indignant  exclamation  to  Mr.  Fish  was,  *  If  Mr.  Motley's  leaning 
was  an  unpardonable  sin,  by  what  right  did  you  sit  in  my  study 
six  months  ago,  and  urge  me  to  go  to  England,  and  press  my  views 
on  the  Alabama  claims  ? '  He  said  then  and  there,  '  Sir,  you  are 
a  tool  of  the  President  for  base  purposes  ;  and  this  removal  is  out 
of  spite.'  And  it  is'  true.  The  testimony  is  on  the  files  of  the 
diplomatic  service  itself." 

Ex-secretary  of  state,  Hon.  Hamilton  Fish,  subse- 
quently affirmed  that  Mr.  Sumner,  while  chairman  of 
the  Foreign-Affairs  Committee,  was  exceedingly  neg- 
ligent of  the  duties  of  his  office ;  that  the  "  reasons " 
for  the  removal  of  Mr.  Sumner  from  the  chairmanship 
"  never  existed ; "  that  Mr.  Sumner  was  not  removed 
from  his  position,  but  that  his  time  "  simply  expired." 
He  said  further,  the  statement  that  President  Grant 
placed  the  San-Domingo  treaty  in  Mr.  Sumner's  hands, 
as  related  by  Mr.  Phillips,  was  "  ridiculously  untrue ; " 
that  the  President  never  had  the  treaty-papers  in  his 
possession;  that  Mr.  Sumner  favored  the  treaty  until 
the  selection  of  a  commissioner  came  up  for  settlement, 
and  that,  when  he  found  that  J.  M.  Ashley  of  Ohio 


NEAEING   THE  END.  317 

was  not  to  be  the  nominee,  he  then  all  at  once  lost 
interest  in  the  treaty,  and  finally  placed  himself  in 
direct  opposition  to  it.  The  conversation  between  the 
President  and  Mr.  Sumner  on  the  subject  took  place 
toward  the  last  of  December,  1869;  and,  in  February 
following,  Mr.  Fish  says,  two  senators  (Carl  Schurz,  and 
Mr.  Stewart  of  Nevada),  gentlemen  of  opposite  political 
views,  canvassed  the  Senate,  and  found  that  the  treaty 
could  not  pass  that  body, — that  it  was  dead.  Upon 
the  meeting  of  the  new  Congress  in  1871,  Mr.  Sumner 
failed  of  being  re-appointed  to  the  chairmanship.  Mr. 
Fish  thought  that  there  were  good  reasons  for  his  being 
left  off  the  committee  at  that  time.  He  was  not  on 
speaking-terms  with  either  the  President  or  the  secre- 
tary of  state,  —  a  most  unpleasant  condition  of  affairs, 
thought  Mr.  Fish,  to  exist  between  the  holder  of  so 
important  a  position  as  Mr.  Sumner  filled,  and  the  first 
officers  of  the  administration. 

Mr.  Fish's  statement  of  the  case  called  forth  many 
responses,  nearly  all  of  them  in  opposition.  In  a  lec- 
ture before  an  audience  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  Mr. 
Phillips  replied  to  Mr.  Fish's  allegations  in  language 
from  which  we  quote  as  follows :  — 

"Mr.  Fish  guessed  that  the  reason  Mr.  Sumner  did  not  vote 
for  the  project  was  because  Ashley  of  Ohio  —  a  favorite  of  Sum- 
ner's  —  was  refused  a  place  on  the  commission.  This  is  as  false 
as  the  claim  of  Mr.  Grant.  Mr.  Sumner's  opposition  to  it  was 
bitter,  and  he  opposed  it  to  the  fullest  extent.  It  was  to  do  that 


318        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

very  thing  that  he  went  to  the  United-States  Senate.  Was  it  not 
devotion  to  the  principle  he  illustrated  which  characterized  his 
whole  life?  The  policy  of  duty  urged  him  on  in  one  direction 
during  his  whole  public  career,  and  he  never  departed  from  it  a 
hair's-breadth.  The  matter  of  Ashley's  appointment  to  the  San- 
Domingo  commission  had  nothing  to  do  with  Sumner's  opposi- 
tion. You  have  but  to  examine  records  and  documents  to  see,  that 
while  the  matter  was  being  discussed,  and  before  the  commission 
had  been  thought  of,  Mr.  Sumner  denounced  the  project  in  deep 
accents  as  the  road  to  hell.  The  annexation,  he  said,  would  lead 
to  the  wreck  of  the  two  governments,  —  one  in  reputation,  and  one 
in  the  matter  of  its  very  existence.  Those  who  know  Mr.  Sumner, 
know  that  it  was  not  Ashley's  disappointment  which  fired  the  great 
heart.  It  is  not  a  question  of  the  statement  of  Mr.  Fish,  and  the 
silent  refutation  of  Senator  Sumner  dead.  We  do  not  need  to 
judge  the  likelihood  of  the  truth  of  the  allegation  by  the  dead 
senator's  sincerity  of  purpose,  veracity  of  utterance,  purity  of  mind. 
There  are  dates,  and  there  is  the  ineffaceable  evidence  in  black  and 
white.  Every  word  he  spoke  in  public,  every  letter  he  sent  or 
received,  is  still  recorded  :  every  place  he  went  to  is  marked.  This 
evidence  we  will  submit.  Mr.  Sumner  was  always  found  in  the 
right  place  saying  the  right  thing." 

In  February,  1880,  Mr.  Phillips  addressed  a  "  plain 
talk "  to  a  committee  at  the  State  House,  in  Boston, 
on  the  license  system.  He  said,  — 

"  I  confess  that  I  have  no  satisfaction  whatever  in  addressing 
the  Legislature  or  its  committee  on  this  subject  of  reform.  We 
might  as  well  address  masks.  Not  a  member  of  any  political 
party  has  the  courage  to  act  as  he  thinks.  The  Legislature  and 
the  city  government  are  an  organized  hypocrisy.  They  have  all 
the  light  they  want  upon  the  subject  now,  but  do  not  dare  to  pass 


WEARING   THE  END.  319 

a  prohibitory  law,  for  rum  rules  the  government.  It  is  simply  a 
question  of  public  agitation.  You  know  well  enough',  that  any 
law  you  may  pass  will  not  be  enforced ;  and  you  only  give  it  to  us 
as  a  blind.  The  police  are  in  league  with  the  rum-sellers,  and 
point  out  to  passers-by  the  side-doors  where  they  may  enter,  if 
they  do  not  know  where  they  are.  The  shop  which  the  policeman 
searches,  he  knows  contains  no  liquor, — that  it  is  in  the  next 
cellar.  There  is  an  organized  arrangement  between  the  police 
and  the  rum-sellers.  If  there  were  any  law  or  purpose  in  the  Com- 
monwealth, the  mayor  of  Boston  could  put  forth  his  hand,  and 
crush  these  illegal  sellers.  Neither  the  mayor  nor  any  alderman 
dares  raise  his  hand  against  them.  The  police  do  not  try  to 
enforce  the  law ;  but,  as  one  of  the  captains  of  the  police  stated, 
if  the  chief  will  allow  them  to  execute  the  law,  they  could  do  it. 
The  city  officials  know  it  would  be  suicide  for  any  individual 
alderman  or  candidate  for  the  mayoralty  to  take  a  pronounced 
and  decided  ground  on  the  side  of  temperance.  I  have  been  told, 
in  regard  to  other  laws  placed  upon  your  statute-books,  that  they 
were  placed  there  to  cheat,  —  notably  the  law  relative  to  colored 
school-children.  This  liquor-law  is  placed  there  to  cheat.  Liquor- 
drinking  costs  the  country  six  or  seven  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars. It  is  being  said  that  universal  suffrage  cannot  be  continued. 
Universal  suffrage  is  the  highest  element  of  civilization.  When 
we  were  willing  to  risk  the  experiment  of  trusting  the  government 
into  the  hands  of  the  people,  we  made  the  greatest  stride  that 
history  recalls.  When  State  Street  looks  down  into  a  baby's 
cradle,  it  knows,  if  that  baby  is  not  educated  in  morality,  its  own 
house  is  not  safe.  And  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  mayor 
and  aldermen  for  forty  years  have  been  any  more  than  a  standing- 
committee  of  the  grog-shops.  Some  say,  «  Surrender ! '  I  say, 
'Fight  it!'  Something  can  be  found  by  Yankee  ingenuity  to 
meet  and  overthrow  this  curse.  We  know  what  we  want.  We 


320        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

want  the  sale  prohibited.  We  don't  cafe  what  a  man  does  in  his 
own  parlor.  He  may  drink  his  champagne  or  whiskey,  and  we 
don't  care.  But  the  moment  a  man  opens  his  shop,  and  sells,  we 
will  interfere.  The  moment  he  undertakes  to  sell  liquor,  the  State 
has  an  absolute  and  unlimited  right  to  step  in.  The  question 
demands  the  extreme  use  of  this  power.  Every  man  familiar  with 
the  execution  of  the  law  knows  that  three-fourths  of  crime  is  due 
to  rum,  which  fills  your  prisons  and  almshouses,  and  burdens  your 
gallows.  In  every  case  in  Great  Britain  and  this  country  where 
the  rum-shops  have  been  closed,  freedom  from  crime,  freedom  from 
taxation,  follows.  The  law  is  unchanging :  no  liquor,  no  crime ; 
no  liquor,  no  tax.  Wherever  the  English  blood  flows,  it  would 
seem  that  the  stimulus  of  the  stomach  had  supreme  power.  There 
are  over  two  hundred  laws  of  this  Legislature  endeavoring  to  curb 
this  devil,  but  every  one  knows  that  we  have  never  succeeded  in 
curbing  it  for  a  moment.  All  over  the  State  you  will  find  whole 
towns  that  have  been  sold  for  a  rum-debt.  There  was  no  law 
in  the  city  on  that  sunny  afternoon  in  October  when  Garrison 
was  trampled  underfoot.  So  it  is  to-day.  There  has  not  been  a 
mayor  for  forty  years  who  would  enforce  a  liquor-law,  and  there 
won't  be  for  forty  years  to  come.  There  is  not  a  Republican  to- 
day who  can  look  into  another  Republican's  face,  and  think  of  the 
license-law,  without  laughing.  It  is  but  the  tub  thrown  to  the 
whale.  A  gentleman  told  me,  that/  though  he  could  not  open 
his  door  without  looking  upon  hell,  he  did  not  wish  to  complain 
of  the  patrolman ;  for  he  was  a  good  friend  of  his.  He  explained 
to  me  clearer  than  ordinary  fiction,  how  the  policeman  was  depend- 
ent upon  the  rum-seller  for  his  baton.  When  you  passed  the 
civil-damage  bill  last  year,  you  struck  the  traffic  a  dire  blow.  The 
boot  is  on  the  other  leg  when  damages  are  left  with  juries,  and  not 
with  mayors  and  aldermen.  The  law  rests  on  a  logical  basis,  on 
a  moral  basis.  If  intemperance  impoverishes  the  country,  what 


NEAEING   THE  END.  321 

the  devil  do  you  want  a  license-law  for?  Prohibition  means 
something.  License  has  been  tried  in  every  shape.  As  long  ago 
as  1837  the  fifteen-gallon  law  was  tried,  and  numerous  other 
devices  have  been  tried  since ;  but  we  have  never  gained  a  point. 
Every  man  who  walks  the  street,  knows,  that,  whenever  we  have 
had  a  prohibitory  law,  there  has  been  an  immediate  change  in  the 
amount  of  drinking.  Under  the  license-law,  sometimes  less  arrests 
are  reported ;  but  there  is  nothing  so  easy  to  make  lie  as  figures. 
If  a  poor  man  get  his  wheel  caught  in  a  rut,  there  will  seven  police- 
men rush  to  his  rescue ;  but  let  there  be  a  drunken  row,  you  won't 
find  a  policeman  within  forty  rods.  There  are  four  thousand  rum- 
shops  in  Boston ;  and  taking  these  four  thousand,  and  their  four 
thousand  best  customers,  you  will  have  eight  thousand  votes, — 
a  larger  number  than  decides  any  election.  You  can't  execute  a 
license-law.  If  you  enact  another  license-law,  I  shall  say  you  are 
hiding  behind  your  political  responsibility." 

In  his  discussion  of  the  liquor-question,  Mr.  Phillips 
did  not  address  himself  wholly  to  the  "  fathers  "  at  the 
State  House.  With  the  opening  of  the  spring  season, 
he  became  intensely  wrought  up  on  the  subject  of  rum 
and  its  kindred  poisons,  and  gave  full  vent  to  his  feel- 
ings and  opinions  in  the  following  address  to  the  liberal 
clergy  of  Boston,  and  to  Rev.  Dr.  C.  A.  Bartol  in  par- 
ticular :  — 

PHILLIPS  TO  BARTOL. 

THE  LIBERAL  CLERGY  AND  THE  INTERESTS  OF  RUM. 

It  seems  a  little  disrespectful  to  Dr.  Bartol  for  us  temperance- 
men  not  to  notice  his  struggles  with  the  whispers  of  his  own  con- 
science. I  would  cheerfully  reply  to  him  if  I  could  see  any  thing 
to  answer ;  but  in  all  seriousness,  and  with  no  intention  of  sarcasm 


322        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

or  disrespect,  I  can  find  nothing  in  his  sermons  worthy  of  notice. 
The  statement  he  makes  in  one  sentence,  he  takes  back  in  the 
following  one;  and  the  objection  which  one  paragraph  notices,  he 
himself  disposes  of  the  next  moment.  Outside  of  what  Dr.  Miner 
has  made  way  with,  all  is  trifling  and  immaterial,  with  one  excep- 
tion. In  his  second  discourse  he  asserted  that  the  temperance- 
lodges  were  the  nests  and  "  hiding-places  of  nameless  vice."  I 
am  not  a  member  of  any  temperance-lodge,  and  have  nothing  to 
do  with  this  accusation ;  but,  if  the  members  of  those  lodges  sit 
down  silent  under  such  a  public  charge,  we  are  at  liberty  to  believe 
them  guilty.  I  presume  Dr.  Bartol  would  not  make  so  grave  an 
accusation  without  having  in  his  possession  what  he  thinks  ample 
evidence  of  its  truth.  If  the  members  of  such  lodges  should  claim 
of  him  to  prove  or  retract  it,  of  course  he  is  man  enough  to  do  so. 
In  the  mean  time  I  wish  to  offer  the  public  two  pictures :  — 

My  first  is  the  West-church  pulpit  in  1826.  Rev.  Dr.  Charles 
Lowell  fills  it,  the  father  of  the  poet,  Russell  Lowell ;  but  Dr. 
Lowell  need  borrow  no  lustre  from  his  illustrious  son.  Boston 
honored  and  loved  him  as  few  of  his  contemporaries  were  loved  or 
honored.  In  his  diary  the  late  Samuel  J.  May  records,  — 

"  In  May,  1826, 1  attended  the  anniversaries  in  Boston.  Amongst 
them  I  attended  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Society 
for  the  Suppression  of  Intemperance,  and  afterward  a  meeting  of 
ministers  called  together  in  the  vestry  of  the  First  Church,  —  the 
Chauncy-place  Church,  —  to  consider  what  was  our  special  duty  as 
ministers.  Several  things  were  said  that  moved  me  deeply.  At 
length  Dr.  Lowell  rose,  and,  having  added  a  few  words  in  further 
delineation  of  the  frightful  ravages  of  intemperance,  said,  with  his 
sweet  solemnity  of  manner,  '  We  can  at  least  do  one  thing,  —  we 
can  ourselves  set  a  good,  yes,  a  perfect,  example.  Let  us  abstain 
wholly  from  the  use  of  whatever  can  intoxicate.  If  such  an 
example  should  be  generally  followed,  we  may  be  sure  the  evil  we 


NEAEING   THE  END.  323 

deprecate  would  be  extirpated  from  the  communities  in  which 
we  live.  I  know  not  that  this  can  be  done  by  any  other  mean*. 
This  expedient  is  proposed :  let  us  try  it  faithfully,  at  any  expense 
of  discomfort,  at  any  sacrifice.'  I  have  not  probably  reported 
exactly  his  words :  the  above  was  the  meaning  of  what  he  said. 
My  determination  was  formed  at  the  close  of  his  speech,  and  total 
abstinence  was  then  established  as  a  rule  of  my  household." 

My  second  picture  is  the  West-church  pulpit,  in  1880.  Dr. 
Bartol  occupies  it ;  and  this  is  the  "  aid  and  comfort "  he  gives  to 
those  "  that  tarry  long  at  the  wine ;  .  .  .  that  go  to  seek  mixed 
wine,"  who  love  to  "  look  .  .  .  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red,  when 
it  giveth  his  color  in  the  cup,"  though  "  at  the  last  it  biteth  like  a 
serpent,  and  stingeth  like  an  adder  : "  — 

"  I  am  not  sure  there  is  any  demonstration  that  the  taking  of 
wine  or  beer  occasionally,  not  as  a  healing-drug,  but  for  pleasure 
and  good  cheer,  and  because,  in  the  language  of  David  and  Eccle- 
siastes,  it  'maketh  glad  and  merry  the  heart  of  man,'  is  to  be  quite 
condemned  as  malfeasance  now,  if  moderation  presides  at  the 
feast.  I  know  not  whether  we  can  or  ought  to  destroy  alcohol 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  will,  in  some  form  and  measure, 
continue  to  be  used.  It  is  not  true  that  it  is  a  duty  for  every  man 
to  abstain  from  all  use  of  intoxicating  liquor,  for  the  sake  of  others 
who  are  liable  to  be  overcome  by  their  appetite  for  drink.  It  is 
not  true  that  total  abstinence  is  requisite  universally,  either  for 
self-protection  or  for  example's  sake.  It  may  be  necessary  to  such 
as,  like  Mr.  Gough,  have  been  once  long  and  thoroughly  steeped, 
like  a  naturalist's  preserved  specimen,  in  alcohol.  'Touch  not, 
taste  not,  handle  not,'  and  smell  not,  may  be  the  rule  for  them. 
As  well  abstain  from  cabbage  and  cauliflower  on  such  a  plea.  But 
he  who  cannot  resist  the  cravings  for  drink,  which  participation  in 
the  service  of  communion  might  cause,  is  not  fit  to  participate 
it,  and  should  refrain." 


324        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

So,  it  seems,  partaking  of  the  communion  is  not  so  important 
as  keeping  open  a  grog-shop  at  every  street-corner,  to  create  appe- 
tite, and  then  to  tempt  men  of  weak  resolution. 

"  Total  abstinence  is  not  the  equivalent  or  synonyme  of  temper- 
ance. Temperance  is  composure.  Strong  drink  is  called  the  foe 
of  our  civilization,  but  how  extravagant  and  erroneous  it  is  to  say 
this  1  Let  the  body,  too,  have  its  dues,  and  not  be  macerated  or 
crucified  to  no  end,  and  the  soul  will  be  all  the  better  for  its  mortal 
companion's  good  estate !  Stringent  laws  often  court  defiance ;  and 
it  is  the  confession  and  lamentation  of  the  friends  of  temperance, 
that  the  consumption  of  wine,  beer,  ale,  cider,  and  stronger  liquors 
is  not  prevented,  or  apparently  reduced,  in  Maine  and  Massachu- 
setts; but  it  is  only  for  the  viciously  inclined  to  be  somewhat 
regulated  and  kept  within  decent  bounds  by  restrictive  laws." 

The  preacher  next  commented  upon  prohibition,  claiming  that 
the  strict  facts  are  not  adhered  to  in  what  is  said  by  prohibitionists 
about  it. 

Will  Dr.  Bartol  —  this  claimant  that  strict  facts  be  adhered  to 
—  please  state  when  and  where  any  respectable  temperance  man  or 
journal  has  ever  "  confessed  "  or  "  lamented  "  that  the  consumption 
of  liquor  was  not  reduced  in  Maine  ? 

"  Gentlemen  will  suffer  no  Legislature  to  dictate  their  habits  by 
any  sumptuary  decree  as  to  what  they  shall  eat  or  drink  at  their 
boards." 

Will  the  "  strict  adherent  to  facts  "  please  state  when  any  tem- 
perance body  ever  asked  the  Legislature  to  do  this  ?  Prohibition 
asks  only  to  shut  up  grog-shops  to  prevent  the  public  sale  of  drink. 

"  Shall  this  freedom  be  the  monopoly  of  the  gentlemen  ?  Will 
the  laboring-classes  make  over  and  assign  to  the  leisurely  and  luxu- 
rious upper  ones  their  share  of  this  prize  of  personal  option  which 
was  politically  wrenched  one  hundred  years  ago  from  the  British 
tyrant,  and  vindicated  and  rescued  from  the  despotism  of  American 


NEAEING   THE  END.  325 

bondage  so  recently  again  ?  We  are  Republican  or  Democrat  in 
this  land.  Let  us  have  no  law  that  does  not  bear  alike  on  high 
and  low !  Aristocracy,  however  plumed  with  benevolence,  is  not 
the  form  of  mercy  fit  for  our  folk !  It  pleases  God  to  make  us 
free ;  with  liberty  to  what  marvellous  and  perilous,  but  shall  we 
say  injurious,  extent?  Can  we  go  back  on  our  Creator,  or  get 
before  him,  or  complain  of  his  construction  of  the  world  ?  This 
continent  is  consecrated  to  equal  rights.  If  a  man  undertakes  to 
dragoon  me  by  menace,  and  word  of  mouth,  into  a  philanthropic 
position,"  etc. 

Does  not  this  sound  just  a  wee  bit  like  a  New- York  Democrat 
haranguing  a  crowd  of  roughs  ? 

"  A  man  is  intemperate,  who,  with  sumptuary  laws  of  any  sort, 
would  tyrannically  override  his  neighbor,  or  cramp  him  in  the 
freedom  he  discreetly  employs.  Ought  I  to  inculcate  total  absti- 
nence from  hammers,  screwdrivers,  and  chisels  for  all  mechanics, 
because  certain  burglars  handle  them  at  midnight  to  unrighteous 
ends?  But  I  so  respect  earnestness,  that  I  unwillingly  take  offence 
at  fanaticism,  save  for  its  injury  to  any  worthy  cause.  Yet  those 
who  would  enforce  total  abstinence  have  unquestionably  set  up  a 
new  inquisition  among  us,  and  one  more  intrusive  than  the  old 
ones  of  Germany  and  Spain ;  as  it  is  for  people's  habits  as  well  as 
for  their  beliefs.  Instead  of  a  temperance  movement,  we  have 
an  intemperance  movement  now,  which  will  not  tolerate  facts. 
One  of  the  best  and  most  temperate  of  men  in  my  parish-round 
has,  by  the  medical  use  of  rock-candy  in  whiskey,  been  withdrawn, 
for  new  years  of  usefulness,  from  the  brink  of  the  grave." 

Is  it  exactly  in  keeping  with  fair  discussion  and  a  "  strict  adher- 
ence to  facts  "  thus  to  insinuate  that  we  temperance-men  should 
have  bid  that  "  best  and  most  temperate  of  men  "  die  before  con- 
senting to  use  alcohol  as  medicine?  That  convenient  epithet, 
"fanatic,"  has  been  flung  at  every  reformer,  whose  arguments 


326        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

could  not  be  answered,  for  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty  years.  I 
am  sorry  to  see  Dr.  Bartol  resorting  to  this  disingenuous  artifice  of 
the  helpless  conservative  and  the  demagogue. 

"  Excite  a  nobler  thirst,  fill  the  vacuum  of  the  mind  with  a  sat- 
isfaction more  lofty  and  pure,  and  feed  it  with  beauty  and  truth. 
Let  me  accordingly  suggest  to  all  engaged  in  the  temperance  reform, 
that  their  main  business,  as  it  is  the  solemn  obligation  of  us  aH,  is, 
to  stir  in  ourselves,  and  waken  in  our  fellows,  the  cravings,  whose 
satisfaction  is  the  soul's  salvation." 

Is  this,  in  very  truth,  the  "  main  business  "  of  temperance  reform- 
ers ?  Well,  then,  they  will  succeed  when,  mightier  than  Shakspeare, 
"  they  can  charm  ache  with  air,  and  agony  with  words."  But  let 
me  remind  Dr.  Bartol  of  the  words  of  the  MASTER,  "  This  kind 
goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  FASTING." 

I  wonder  if  the  present  generation  of  West-church  sheep  are 
intelligent  enough  to  perceive  the  difference  between  these  two 
pulpits.  And,  if  so,  which  do  they  look  up  to  with  the  better 
satisfaction  ? 

Some  temperance-men  are  surprised  and  indignant  at  what  they 
consider  Dr.  Bartol's  prostitution  of  the  Liberal  pulpit.  Such  men 
forget  the  history  of  the  temperance  movement  in  Boston.  When 
Rev.  John  Pierpont,  forty  years  ago,  returned  from  the  East,  he 
stated,  in  his  pulpit  in  Hollis  Street,  that  the  first  thing  he  saw 
there  (in  Smyrna,  I  believe)  was  a  barrel  of  New-England  rum, — 
N.E.  RUM  burned  into  its  head  in  large  capitals.  He  made  this 
the  text  for  an  earnest  and  eloquent  agitation  of  the  temperance 
question.  The  richest  parishioners  were  ruin-makers  and  rum- 
sellers  :  their  rum  was  then  stored,  I  think,  in  the  very  cellar  of 
his  church.  I  will  not  mention  their  names :  their  children  con- 
tinue the  manufacture  and  the  traffic.  They  set  to  work,  by 
reducing  his  salary,  refusing  to  pay  one  dollar  of  it,  mortgaging 
the  church  for  heavy  debt,  and  by  every  means,  to  drive  Pierpont 


NEAEING   THE  END.  327 

from  the  pulpit.  Finding  this  ineffectual,  they  announced  their 
determination  to  buy  up  every  pew  that  could  be  had,  and  thus, 
securing  a  majority  of  votes,  dismiss  him  from  his  charge.  Fran- 
cis Jackson ,  a  name  always  to  be  written  by  Bostonians  in  letters 
of  gold,  and  the  late  venerable  Samuel  May,  led  the  temperance- 
men  in  resisting  this  plot.  They  succeeded  in  form ;  they  vindi- 
cated Mr.  Pierpont  on  every  trial,  leaving  no  smell  of  fire  on  his 
garments  ;  but  they  could  not  "  hold  the  fort."  In  fact,  rum 
triumphed.  The  wealthy  rum-sellers  of  the  city,  whether  attend- 
ing the  Hollis  Street  or  not,  bought  pews  there,  —  pews  they  never 
used,  —  and  finally  obliged  Mr.  Pierpont  to  agree  to  vacate  his 
pulpit.  During  the  seven  years  of  this  hard-fought  battle  between 
the  penniless,  eloquent,  and  devoted  apostle  in  the  pulpit  and  the 
wealthy  rum-sellers  in  the  pews,  the  Unitarian  clergy  of  Suffolk 
County  gave  the  public  to  understand  that  they  renounced  all 
ministerial  fellowship  with  Mr.  Pierpont,  never  exchanged  with 
him,  or  extended  to  him  professional  recognition  or  courtesy. 
With  two  or  three  exceptions  (Rev.  J.  T.  Sargent,  Dr.  Gannett, 
and  one  or  two  others  —  Mr.  Theodore  Parker  was  not  then 
preaching  in  Boston),  all  the  Liberal  clergy  shut  him  from  their 
pulpits.  In  their  last  letter  to  Mr.  Pierpont,  the  rum-sellers  taunted 
him  with  the  fact  that  hardly  one  of  his  clerical  brethren  in  Bos- 
ton would  exchange  with  him.  And,  in  his  letter  of  farewell  to 
the  Unitarian  Association,  Mr.  Pierpont  refers  to  this  desertion, 
and  affirms  that  this  repudiation  of  him  by  his  brother  clergymen 
was  the  special  thing  which  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  remain  in 
the  Hollis-street  pulpit ;  and,  further,  his  certain  knowledge  that 
this  course  of  conduct  toward  him  was  adopted,  on  their  part,  on 
purpose,  and  with  the  intention,  to  drive  him  from  that  pulpit. 

Mr.  Bartol,  therefore,  does  not  prostitute  the  Liberal  pulpit; 
although  one  might  sigh  for  the  purer  gospel  Lowell  preached  in 
the  West  Church.  Judged  by  the  example  and  conduct  of  the 


328        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

vast  majority  of  the  Liberal  clergy  of  Boston  for  the  last  forty 
years,  such  sermons  as  Dr.  Bartol  has  of  late  delivered  are  just  the 
preaching  for  which  the  Liberal  pulpit  was  created  and  is  sustained. 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Dr.  Bartol  sent  the  following  "  note  "  to  the  editors 
of  "  The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser : "  — 

To  THE  EDITORS  OF  "THE  BOSTON  DAILY  ADVERTISER:"  — 

You  will  excuse  me  from  replying  to  Mr.  Phillips ;  and  he  will 
be  glad  to  have  me  state,  first,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Pierpont,  that  the 
West  Church  took  no  part  in  his  trial ;  and  I  was,  I  think,  the  last 
Boston  minister,  not  long  before  he  left  his  pulpit,  to  exchange 
with  him.  We  were  on  terms  of  friendship,  fellowship,  and  mutual 
confidence  to  the  end.  Secondly,  I  referred,  under  the  head  of 
"  nameless  vice,"  only  to  certain  rural  gatherings,  or  meetings,  of 
"  lodges ;  "  and  several  persons  assure  me,  that  such  facts  as  I  had 
in  mind  have  existed,  as  they  have,  perhaps,  more  often,  in 
churches,  and  at  camp-meetings  too.  For  the  Masons  and  Odd 
Fellows,  as  a  body,  I  have  a  profound  respect.  Thirdly,  Dr. 
Lowell,  my  ever  dear  and  honored  colleague,  was  not  what  is 
called  a  total  abstainer ;  but  he  was,  in  speech  and  act  and  habit, 

a  thoroughly  temperate  man. 

C.  A.  BARTOL. 

On  the  24th  of  January,  1881,  the  Tremont  Temple 
in  Boston  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  an  audience 
desirous  of  hearing  Mr.  Phillips's  review  of  Dr.  Howard 
Crosby's  recent  anti-total-abstinence  discourse.  The 
lecture  was  in  the  orator's  best  vein,  although  he  dead- 
ened his  usual  brilliancy  of  delivery  by  reading  (con- 
trary to  his  custom)  his  address  from  a  manuscript. 


NEAEING   THE  END.  329 

Mr.  Phillips  thoroughly  examined  Dr.  Crosby's  argu- 
mentation, and  answered  all  his  points,  as  will  be  seen 
by  a  reading  of  the  following  sketch :  — 

"'Dr.  Crosby's  lecture  was  noticeable  for  lack  of  novelty,  or 
weight  of  argument,  and  of  correctness  in  his  statements.  I  dis- 
sent from  Dr.  Crosby's  remark  that  we  "cannot  conscientiously 
object  to  the  means  employed  by  others  unless  they  contain  an 
immorality,"  and  say  that  Dr.  Crosby  should  have  studied  the  his- 
tory of  the  temperance  movement.  I  may  sum  up  Dr.  Crosby's 
lecture  as  follows :  — 

"'1.  Dr.  Crosby  objects  to  the  total-abstinence  theory  and 
movement,  and  it  insults  the  example  of  Jesus ;  that  its  advocates 
undermine  and  despise  the  Bible,  while  they  strain  and  wrench  it 
to  serve  their  purpose;  and  he  asserts  that  the  Bible,  correctly 
interpreted,  repudiates  total  abstinence,  and  such  a  temperance  cru- 
sade as  has  existed  here  for  the  last  fifty  years. 

" '  2.  Dr.  Crosby  objects  to  this  movement  as  immoral  and  un- 
christian; the  total-abstinence  system  is  "contrary  to  revealed 
religion,"  and  "  doing  unmeasured  harm  to  the  community ; "  he 
considered  it  as  the  special  and  direct  cause  of  the  "growth  of 
drunkenness  in  our  land,  and  of  a  general  demoralization  among 
religious  communities ; "  asserts  that  it  is  exactly  the  kind  of  move- 
ment that  rum-sellers  enjoy,  and  that  it  ought  not  to  succeed,  never 
will,  and  never  can. 

"'3.  The  pledge  is  unmanly,  and  kills  character  and  self-re- 
spect. 

" « 4.  The  assertion  that  moderate  drinking  leads  to  drunkenness 
is  untrue. 

"  <  5.  The  total  abstainers  bully  and  intimidate  the  community, 
and  disgust  all  good,  sensible  men. 

" « 6.  That  what  is  needed  to  unite  sensible  men,  in  a  movement 


330        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

sure  to  succeed,  is  a  license  system  recognizing  the  distinction 
between  moderation  and  excess,  between  harmless  wines  and 
beer  and  strong  drink.  Such  a  system,  "free  from  taint  of  pre- 
judice and  instinct,  with  practical  wisdom,  will  establish  order  and 
peace,  and  save  us  from  a  moral  slough." 

" '  The  looseness  of  these  statements  is  noticeable.  Total  absti- 
nence is  abstaining  from  intoxicating  drinks  ourselves,  and  agree- 
ing with  others  to  do  so.  No  one  pretends  that  he  can  cite  a 
biblical  text  which  forbids  total  abstinence.  Dr.  Crosby's  argu- 
ment is,  that  Jesus  drank  intoxicating  wine,  and  allowed  it  to 
others.  There  is  no  proof  that  he  ever  did  drink  intoxicating 
wine ;  but  let  that  pass,  and  suppose,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument, 
that  he  did.  What  then?  To  do  what  Jesus  never  did,  or  to 
refuse  to  do  what  he  did,  are  such  acts  necessarily  "contrary  to 
revealed  religion  "  ?  Let  us  see.  Jesus  rode  upon  an  ass's  colt :  we 
ride  upon  railways.  Are  they  contrary  to  revealed  religion  ?  Jesus 
never  married.  Is  marriage  contrary  to  revealed  religion  ? 

" '  Now,  there  is  a  class  of  biblical  scholars  and  interpreters  who 
do  assert,  that,  wherever  wine  is  referred  to  in  the  Bible  with 
approbation,  it  is  unfermented  wine.  Of  this  class  of  men  Dr. 
Crosby  says,  "  Their  learned  ignorance  is  splendid ;  "  they  are  "  in- 
ventors of  a  theory  of  magnificent  daring ;  "  they  "  use  false  texts  " 
and  "  deceptive  arguments ; "  "  deal  dishonestly  with  the  Scrip- 
tures ; "  "  beg  the  question,  and  build  on  air ; "  their  theory  is  a 
"  fable  "  born  of  "  falsehoods,"  supported  by  "  Scripture  twisting 
and  wriggling ;  "  their  arguments  are  "  cobwebs,"  and  their  zeal  out- 
strips their  judgment,  and  they  plan  to  "undermine  the  Bible." 
Who  are  these  daring,  ridiculous,  and  illogical  sinners  ?  As  I  call 
them  up  in  my  memory,  the  first  one  who  conies  to  me  is  Moses 
Stuart  of  Andover,  whose  lifelong  study  of  the  Bible,  and  profound 
critical  knowledge  of  both  its  languages,  place  him  easily  at  the  head 
of  all  American  commentators.  "  Moses  Stuart's  Scripture  Yiew 


NEABING   THE  END.  331 

of  the  Wine  Question  "  was  the  ablest  contribution,  thirty  years  ago, 
to  this  claim  about  unfermented  wine,  and  still  holds  its  place  un- 
answered and  unanswerable.  By  his  side  stands  Dr.  Nott,  the 
head  of  Union  College,  with  the  snows  of  ninety  winters  on  his 
brow.  Around  them  gather  scores  of  scholars  and  divines,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In  our  day  Taylor  Lewis  gives  to  the  Ameri- 
can public,  with  his  scholarly  indorsement,  the  exhaustive  commen- 
tary by  Dr.  Lees  on  every  text  in  the  Bible  which  speaks  of  wine,  — 
a  work  of  sound  learning,  the  widest  research,  and  fairest  argument. 
The  ripe  scholarship,  long  study  of  the  Bible,  and  critical  ability 
of  these  men,  entitle  them  to  be  considered  experts  on  this  ques- 
tion. In  a  matter  of  Scripture  interpretation,  it  would  be  empty 
compliment  to  say  that  Dr.  Crosby  is  worthy  to  loose  the  latchet 
of  their  shoes.  Now,  the  truth  is,  the  only  "  castle  built  in  the 
air  "  in  this  matter,  is  the  baseless  idea  that  the  temperance  move- 
ment uses  dishonest  arguments,  or  wrests  the  Scripture,  because 
it  maintains,  that,  where  the  drinking  of  wine  as  an  article  of  diet 
is  mentioned  in  the  Bible  with  approbation,  unfermented  wine  is 
meant.  The  fact  is,  there  are  scholars  of  repute  on  both  sides  of 
the  question.  But  we  do  not  claim  too  much  when  we  say  that  the 
weight  of  scholarly  authority  is  on  our  side,  and  not  on  that  of  the 
doctor.' 

"  Mr.  Phillips  devoted  further  attention  to  the  scriptural  argu- 
ment, saying  that  once  the  Bible  was  thrown  in  the  way  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery  just  as  it  is  now  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  total- 
abstinence  movement.  He  said,  '  I  see  your  lecturer  last  week 
closed  his  eloquent  and  able  address  by  triumphantly  claiming 
that  the  gospel  abolished  slavery  —  which  is  true,  only  he  should 
have  stated  that  it  was  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  the  gos- 
pel of  the  church  of  that  day.  Hence  I  am  not  impatient  nor 
distrustful.  I  rest  quiet  in  serene  assurance  that  by  and  by,  when 
our  temperance  cause  is  a  little  stronger,  men  will  blush  to  think 


332        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

they  ever  belittled  and  dishonored  the  Bible  by  such  claims  and 
arguments  as  these.  At  that  time  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
Christians  will  look  askance  upon  you,  and  suspect  your  orthodoxy, 
unless  you  believe  Jesus  never  drank  any  fermented  wine,  and  that 
the  Bible's  precepts  touching  wine-drinking  can  only  be  reconciled 
with  each  other,  or  with  its  claim  as  a  revealed  religion,  by  recog- 
nizing the  distinction  between  fermented  and  unfermented  wines. 
In  my  active  life  of  fifty  years  I  have  seen  more  men  made  infidels 
by  these  attempts  to  prove  the  Bible  an  upholder  of  slavery,  than  I 
ever  saw  misled  by  the  followers  of  Paine;  and  I  think  this  sad 
exhibition  of  New- York  partisanship  will  have  the  same  result. 
The  misled  men  to  whom  I  refer  were  not  ignorant,  careless- 
minded,  or  unprincipled,  but  men  of  conscientious  earnestness, 
purpose,  good  culture,  and  blameless  lives.  The  Bible  is  a  divine 
book,  a  strong  proof  of  which  is,  that  it  has  outlived  even  the 
foolish  praises  and  misrepresentations  of  its  narrow  and  bigoted 
friends.  The  New  Testament  is  a  small  book,  and  may  be  read  in 
an  hour.  It  is  not  a  code  of  laws,  but  the  example  of  a  life  and  a 
suggestion  of  principles.  It  would  be  idle  to  suppose  that  it  could 
describe  in  detail,  specifically  meet  every  possible  question,  and 
solve  every  difficulty  that  the  changing  and  broadening  life  of  two 
or  three  thousand  years  might  bring  forth.  The  progressive  spirit 
of  each  age  has  found  in  it  just  the  inspiration  and  help  it  sought. 
But  when  timid,  narrow,  and  short-sighted  men  claimed  such  ex- 
clusive ownership  in  it  that  they  refused  to  their  growing  fellows 
the  use  of  its  broad,  underlying  principles,  and  thus  demanded  to 
have  new  wine  put  into  old  bottles,  of  course  the  bottles  burst,  and 
their  narrow-surface  Bible  became  discredited ;  but  the  real  Bible 
soared  upward,  and  led  the  world  onward  still,  as  the  soul  rises  to 
broader  and  higher  life  when  the  burden  of  a  narrow  and  mortal 
body  falls  away.' 

"  Signing  the  total-abstinence  pledge  was  the  next  subject  taken 


NEAPING   THE  END.  333 

up  by  Mr.  Phillips,  and  the  general  principles  which  are  at  the  basis 
of  promises  were  stated  as  follows :  « Dr.  Crosby  is  undoubtedly  a 
member  of  a  church.  Does  he  mean  to  say,  that  when  his  church 
demanded  his  signature  to  its  creed,  and  its  pledge  to  obey  its 
discipline,  it  asked  what  it  was  "  unmanly  "  in  him  to  grant  ?  He 
only  objects  to  a  temperance  pledge,  not  to  a  church  one.  The 
husband  pledges  himself  to  his  wife,  and  she  to  him,  for  life.  Is 
the  marriage  ceremony,  then,  a  curse,  a  hinderance  to  virtue  and 
progress?  Society  rests,  in  all  its  transactions,  on  the  idea  that  a 
solemn  promise,  pledge,  or  assertion,  strengthens  and  assures  the 
act.  The  witness  on  the  stand  gives  solemn  promise  to  tell  the 
truth ;  the  officer  about  to  assume  place  for  one  year  or  ten,  or  for 
life,  pledges  his  word  and  oath ;  the  grantor  in  a  deed  binds  him- 
self for  all  time  by  record ;  churches,  societies,  universities,  accept 
funds  on  pledge  to  appropriate  them  to  certain  purposes,  and  no 
other :  these  and  a  score  more  of  instances  can  be  cited.  In  any 
final  analysis,  all  these  rest  on  the  same  principle  as  the  temperance 
pledge.  No  man  ever  denounced  them  as  unmanly.  I  sent  this 
month  a  legacy  to  a  literary  institution  on  certain  conditions,  and 
received  in  return  its  pledge  that  the  money  should  ever  be  sacredly 
used  as  directed.  The  doctor's  principle  would  unsettle  society; 
and,  if  one  proposed  to  apply  it  to  any  cause  but  temperance,  prac- 
tical men  would  quietly  put  him  aside  as  out  of  his  head.  These 
cobweb  theories,  born  of  isolated  cloister-life,  do  not  bear  exposure 
to  the  mid-day  sun,  or  the  rude  winds  of  practical  life.  This  is 
not  a  matter  of  theory.  Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  attest 
the  value  of  the  pledge.  It  never  degraded,  it  only  lifted  them  to 
a  higher  life.  We  who  never  lost  our  clear  eyesight  or  level  bal- 
ance over  books,  but  who  stand  mixed  up  and  jostled  in  daily  life, 
hardly  deem  any  man's  sentimental  and  fastidious  criticism  of  the 
pledge  worth  answering.  Every  active  worker  in  the  temperance 
cause  can  recall  hundreds  of  instances  where  it  has  been  a  man's 
salvation.' 


334        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  Moderate  drinking  and  Dr.  Crosby's  defence  of  it  were  next 
handled ;  Mr.  Phillips  saying,  '  Dr.  Crosby  says  it  is  false  our  con- 
stant assertion  that  moderate  drinking  makes  drunkards.  WiD 
he  please  tell  us  where,  then,  the  drunkards  come  from?  Certainly 
teetotalers  do  not  recruit  these  swelling  ranks.  Will  he  please 
account  for  the  million-times  repeated  story  of  the  broken-hearted 
and  despairing  sot,  or  the  reformed  man,  that  "  moderate  drinking 
lulled  them  to  a  false  security  until  the  chain  was  too  strong  for 
them  to  break?"  Will  he  please  explain  that  confession  forced 
from  old  Sam  Johnson,  and  repeated  hundreds  of  times  since  by 
men  of  seemingly  strong  resolve,  «« I  can  abstain :  I  can't  be  mod- 
erate" ?  Do  not  the  Bible,  the  writers  of  fiction,  the  master  drama- 
tists of  ancient  and  modern  times,  the  philosopher,  the  moralist, 
the  man  of  affairs,  —  do  not  all  these  bear  witness  how  insidiously 
the  habits  of  sensual  indulgence  creep  on  their  victim  until  he 
wakes  to  find  himself  in  chains  of  iron,  his  very  will  destroyed?' 

"Mr.  Phillips  then  answered,  with  some  sarcasm,  the  remark 
that  the  rum-sellers  are  pleased  with  the  enactment  of  a  prohibi- 
tory law,  and  that  such  a  law  is  an  injury  to  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance. He  could  prove  Christianity  a  failure  by  the  same 
reasoning  which  proves  the  temperance  reform  to  be  a  failure. 
Mr.  Phillips  drew  a  graphic  sketch  of  the  progress  of  the  temper- 
ance movement  in  the  last  fifty  years.  '  Dr.  Crosby  then  had,'  said 
he,  'every  man,  lay  and  cle'rical,  on  his  side  in  construing  the 
Bible ;  whereas  now  we  are  in  a  healthy  majority  :  then  a  few  scat- 
tered temperance- tracts,  like  rockets  in  a  night,  only  betrayed  how 
utterly  the  world  was  in  the  desert  on  this  subject;  now  a  tem- 
perance literature  crowded  with  facts,  strong  in  argument,  filled 
with  testimonies  from  men  of  the  first  eminence  in  every  walk  of 
life,  in  every  department  of  science  and  literature,  challenges  and 
defies  all  canvass:  then  the  idea  of  total  abstinence  was  not  so 
much  denied  as  wholly  unknown ;  now,  if  New  England  were 


NEAEING   THE  END.  335 

polled  to-day,  our  majority  would  be  overwhelming  :  then  all  men 
held  liquors  to  be  healthy  and  useful ;  now  seventy  men  out  of  a 
hundred,  whatever  their  practice,  deny  that  claim,  and  the  upper 
classes,  well-informed,  and  careful  of  health,  lead  the  way  in 
giving  up  the  use :  then  the  medical  profession  waded  in  the  same 
slough  of  indulgence  and  ignorance  as  their  patients ;  now  the 
verdict  of  the  profession  is  undoubtedly  and  immeasurably  against 
the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  at  all  in  health,  and  but  seldom  in 
favor  of  it  in  disease.  We  have  driven  the  indulgence  in  drink 
into  hiding-places,  and  for  the  first  time  the  Legislature  is  obliged 
and  willing  to  prohibit  the  use  of  screens  to  hide  rum-drinkers 
from  the  public  view  they  dread.' 

"  The  State  of  Maine  was  cited  as  a  proof  of  the  possibility  of 
the  enforcement  of  a  prohibitory  law.  License  was  denounced. 
*  The  statute-books  in  forty  States  are  filled  with  the  abortions  of 
thousands  of  license-laws  that  were  never  executed,  and  most  of 
them  were  never  intended  to  be.  We  have  as  good  a  license-law 
in  this  State  as  was  ever  devised ;  and  yet  it  leaves  such  an  amount 
of  defiant,  unblushing  grog-selling  as  discourages  Dr.  Crosby,  and 
leads  him  to  think  nothing  has  been  done  at  all.  His  own  city, 
with  license-laws,  is  yet  so  ruled  and  plundered  by  rum,  that  timid 
statesmen  advise  giving  up  republicanism,  and  borrowing  a  leaf 
from  Bismarck  to  help  us.  License  has  been  tried  on  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  and  with  the  best  backing  for  centuries, 
—  ten  or  twelve,  at  least.  Yet  Dr.  Crosby  stands  confounded  before 
the  result.  We  have  never  been  allowed  to  try  prohibition  except 
in  one  State,  and  in  some  small  circuits.  Wherever  it  has  been 
tried,  it  has  succeeded.  Friends  who  know,  claim  this :  enemies 
who  have  been  for  a  dozen  years  ruining  teeth  by  biting  files, 
confess  it  by  their  lack  of  argument,  and  lack  of  facts  except  when 
they  invent  them.' 


336        LIFE  AND   TINES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


"REMARKS  OF  GOV.  LONG. 

"After  Mr.  Phillips  finished,  Gov.  Long  was  introduced  with 
hearty  applause,  and  spoke  as  follows :  — 

"  *  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  came,  as  you  did,  to  listen,  and 
not  to  speak.  Men  may  come,  and  men  may  go.  Dr.  Crosby 
may  attack,  and  Mr.  Phillips  defend.  You  may  belittle,  if  you 
will  allow  me  to  say  so,  the  character  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  by  quoting  him  upon  the  topic  on  which  he  never  expressed 
himself  (I  say  it  reverently),  and  on  which  he  is  no  more  to  be 
quoted  as  an  authority  than  upon  the  question  of  the  tariff.  But 
for  myself  I  want  no  better  test  than  I  find  when  I  go  to  the  moral 
and  intelligent  conscience  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  a 
Commonwealth  like  this,  whose  representatives  you  men  and 
women  gathered  here  in  this  audience  are.  [Applause.]  And  I 
find  in  this  matter  of  temperance,  and  the  crusade  against  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  as  in  every  other  great  moral  reform,  that  the 
standard  must  be  put  infinitely  higher  up  in  the  plane  of  con- 
science itself,  —  infinitely  higher  than  the  cold  framework  of  any 
moral  system  of  logic.  [Applause.]  I  believe  that  the  votaries 
and  advocates  of  total  abstinence,  who  are  doing  something  for  the 
growth  and  self-respect  and  character  of  the  work  in  so  many  a 
noble  channel  in  cities  and  villages,  through  the  forces  of  moral 
influences  for  the  good  of  their  fellow-men,  will  still  increase  more 
and  more  the  moral  sentiment  and  encouragement  and  help  of 
every  true  Christian  and  true  philanthropist/  " 

In  February  Mr.  Phillips,  who  had  often  before 
expressed  his  opinions  on  the  subject  of  Irish  agitation, 
again  spoke  on  "  The  Crisis  in  Irish  Affairs  "  at  a  Land- 
League  meeting  held  in  Somerville,  Mass.  He  said,  — 

"The  Irish  question  is  a  riddle  which  English  statesmanship 


NEAEING   THE  END.  337 

has  tried  for  more  than  a  century  to  solve.  It  is  made  up  of  hatred 
of  race,  hatred  of  creed,  and  intense  adherence  to  certain  old-time 
prejudices  in  regard  to  land  tenure;  and  these  three  strands  make 
a  cable  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  break.  Charles  James 
Fox,  the  great  English  statesman  one  hundred  years  ago,  died  with 
the  confession,  'I  have  tried  to  solve  the  Irish  question;  I  have 
been  unable  to  do  it;  and  I  confess  I  do  not  see  how  anybody  can 
ever  solve  it.'  He  meant,  the  difficulties  are  so  inherent,  so  pro- 
found, so  radical,  that  he  saw  no  possibility  of  ever  reconciling  the 
feelings  and  the  interests  of  the  two  islands  by  any  arrangement, 
any  policy  of  conciliation  that  he  could  devise;  and  if  you  had 
asked  him,  in  the  closing  years  of  his  great  life,  what  solution  can 
be  possibly  made  of  this  quarrel  of  the  centuries,  he  would  have 
answered,  « There  is  none  except  the  separation  of  the  two  islands, 
and  giving  Ireland  to  the  Irish.'  [Applause.]  It  may  look  like  a 
wild  dream  ;  and  wise  men  have  thought,  that,  among  the  colossal 
monarchies  of  Europe,  an  island  of  only  eight  million  or  twelve 
million  of  people  would  be  so  small  a  State,  that  it  could  not 
vindicate  its  own  existence.  Undoubtedly  it  would  be  an  excep- 
tion to  the  general  law  of  European  kingdoms;  but  so  great  are 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  union  between  the  two  islands,  that 
that  seems  the  only  door  out  of  the  great  difficulty  which  has  beset 
land-locked  England  for  more  than  one  hundred  years. 

"  I  said  it  was  a  riddle  which  English  statesmanship  has  tried 
to  solve  for  one  hundred  years.  They  tried  with  intense  earnest- 
ness. They  had  all  the  most  selfish  motives  to  solve  this  Irish 
difficulty  For  if  there  be  any  one  cause  that  has  reduced  England, 
from  a  first-rate  Continental  power  to  a  third,  or,  at  least,  second, 
rate  on  the  chess-board  of  Europe,  it  was  the  fact  that  the  immeas- 
urable and  the  irreconcilable  hate  of  Ireland  reduced  her  moral 
and  military  power.  The  Continental  nations  of  Europe  know 
to-day  that  England  is  checkmated,  to  a  great  extent,  by  this 


338        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Irish  question.  The  ranks  of  the  English  army  are  more  than 
half  recruited  from  the  Irish  race,  and  England  knows  that  that 
army  is  inefficient.  It  may  turn  any  moment  against  them.  Why 
did  Bismarck  smite  them  in  the  face  ten  years  ago  in  the  matter 
of  the  Danish  parties,  insolently,  in  the  presence  of  all  Europe  ? 
Because  the  great  German  knew,  that  if  any  one  put  a  regiment  in 
the  field,  or  pointed  a  cannon,  against  English  power,  Ireland  stood 
ready  to  stab  her  in  the  back.  [Applause.]  It  was  exactly  the 
weakness  which  came  over  our  government  during  the  existence  of 
the  press-hatred  of  the  civil  war.  English  statesmanship,  recog- 
nizing this  fact,  has  tried,  with  intense  earnestness,  to  solve  the 
great  trouble.  Pitt  and  Fox,  and  every  great  statesman  since, 
down  to  Gladstone  and  Beaconsfield,  have  devoted  their  most 
earnest  energy,  and  Irish  genius  has  added  its  contribution. 
Burke  and  Grattan  and  Emmet  and  Curran,  and  all  your  great 
names  down  to  O'Connell  and  Parnell,  have  laid  on  the  altar  of  a 
solution  of  this  riddle  their  grandest  energy.  And  still  it  con- 
fronts us  unsolved  and  doubly  pointed  to-day. 

"  There  is,  on  every  side,  a  resemblance  point  by  point  to  the 
negro  question  with  which  America  grappled.  Gladstone's  posi- 
tion, at  the  present  time,  is  this :  he  has  the  wolf  by  the  ears,  and 
he  can  neither  hold  him  nor  let  him  go.  [Applause.]  If  he  ever 
thanks  God  on  his  bended  knees,  he  probably  thanks  him  earnestly 
that  that  jury  in  Dublin  disagreed.  If  they  had  agreed,  and  con- 
demned the  Land-Leaguers,  he  would  have  had  an  elephant  on  his 
hands  too  big  to  handle.  There  was  no  prison  that  could  have 
held  them,  and  there  was  no  public  opinion  that  would  have  sus- 
tained him ;  whereas,  if  the  jury  had  acquitted  them,  the  govern- 
ment would  have  stood  ridiculous  in  the  face  of  the  world  for 
having  made  an  issue  on  which  the  usual  tribunals  of  the  country 
wrote  *  Shame  ! '  [Applause.]  The  grand  danger  and  great  diffi- 
culty of  the  Irish  question  to-day  is  one  that  is  made  by  civilization 


NEAEING   THE  END.  339 

itself.  We  stand  in  an  epoch  of  change  in  the  whole  conditions 
of  the  world.  It  is  like  the  discovery  of  America,  which  changed 
the  kingdoms  of  Europe.  It  is  ten  times  greater  than  the  discovery 
of  golden  California,  which  revolutionized  the  commerce  of  the 
world.  There  are  certain  great  waves  beating  against  the  present 
systems  of  industry  and  commerce,  which  have  brought  this  Irish 
question  to  confront  us.  Parnell  is  merely  doing  what  O'Connell 
did  before  him.  He  is  using  England's  adversity  as  Ireland's 
opportunity.  Gladstone  seems  verging  to  a  point  from  which 
nothing  can  extricate  him  but  force.  When  a  government,  in 
this  age,  reaches  that  point,  it  dies.  Brains  rule  now,  not  bayo- 
nets. If  Gladstone  is  driven  to  the  point  of  resting  the  govern- 
ment on  force,  it  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  end  ;  and,  if  he  had 
not  neared  the  fatal  emergency,  he  never  would  have  stooped  to 
the  indescribable  meanness  of  having  arrested  Davitt,  whose  single 
crime  was  that  he  was  making  a  great  moral  agitation  in  behalf  of 
the  race  to  which  he  belonged." 

Mr.  Phillips  closed  his  address  by  a  peroration,  in 
which  he  reminded  his  audience  that  the  time  for 
Ireland's  friends  to  act  had  come.  England  being 
distracted  on  every  side,  she  could  spare  no  troops  for 
Ireland.  If  they  let  this  opportunity  slip  by,  such 
another  might  not  arise  in  this  generation.  A  burst  of 
applause  followed  his  sitting  down. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  of  this  year,  Mr.  Phillips  deliv- 
ered his  remarkable  address,  entitled  "  The  Scholar  in 
a  Republic,"  at  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  of  Harvard  College.  The  following  ex- 
ceedingly interesting  recollections  of  this  memorable 


340        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

occasion  are  given  by  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke  of 
Boston :  — 

"  Listening  to  Wendell  Phillips  at  Cambridge,"  says 
Dr.  Clarke,  "  and  seeing  him  at  last  among  his  literary 
peers,  and  returned  for  one  day  to  stand  in  the  halls 
of  Harvard,  I  thought  the  event  so  historic  as  to  be 
worth  some  reflections.  I  compared  it  with  another 
historical  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration,  given  in  the  same 
place  forty-four  years  ago.  I  was  present  at  the  deliv- 
ery of  the  oration,  in  1837,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 
He  had  then  just  entered  on  the  career  which  has  since 
been  so  brilliant  and  so  triumphant,  but  at  that  time 
he  was  an  unpopular  and  suspected  man  in  the  literary 
circles  of  Boston.  His  philosophy  was  transcenden- 
talism, and  transcendentalism  had  a  dark  and  ominous 
sound  to  the  ears  of  Boston  people.  It  was  supposed 
to  be  some  mysterious  infidelity,  dangerous  to  the  order 
of  the  State.  At  all  events,  it  meant  rebellion  to  the 
established  ways  of  thought  and  speech.  Mr.  Emer- 
son's language  was  dark  and  mysterious.  He  did  not 
use  the  old  commonplaces  of  New-England  rhetoric. 
His  style  was  plainly  not  Addisonian.  Many  eminent 
persons  triumphantly  declared  his  sayings  wholly  unin- 
telligible. One  mot,  very  current  at  that  period,  was 
attributed  to  a  very  learned  lawyer  of  the  Suffolk  bar, 
who,  having  been  seen  at  one  of  Mr.  Emerson's  lec- 
tures, and  asked  if  he  understood  him,  replied,  '  No,  I 
do  not ;  but  my  daughters  do.'  But  Mr.  Emerson  had 


NEAEING   THE  END.  341 

a  very  earnest  body  of  admirers,  who,  like  Mr.  Mason's 
daughters,  thought  that  they  understood  him.  They 
were  those  who  loved,  and  did  not  fear,  his  originality  of 
thought  and  expression.  They  loved  to  be  taken  away 
from  the  endless  repetition  of  the  school  of  John  Locke, 
and  to  catch  some  fresh  breezes  from  a  higher  mountain 
load  of  thought.  Mr.  Emerson  fed  their  souls  with 
bread  which  seemed  to  have  come  down  from  heaven. 
He,  again,  introduced  immediate  vision  of  truth  and 
reality.  He  opened  the  way  into  untrodden  domains 
of  spiritual  thought.  Those  who  had  listened  with  joy 
to  Channing,  who  had  been  made  glad  by  Wordsworth 
and  Coleridge,  came  to  hear  Emerson  whenever  he 
spoke.  You  always  saw  nearly  the  same  audience  at 
his  lectures,  —  the  same  men  and  women. 

"  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that,  when  it  was  known  that 
Emerson  was  to  give  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration,  the 
old  church  in  Cambridge  contained  two  wholly  distinct 
bodies  of  hearers.  On  the  platform,  on  each  side 
of  the  speaker,  sat  the  dignitaries,  the  old  leaders  of 
opinion,  who  were  there  because  that  was  their  place. 
These  were  the  men  of  eminent  gravity,  of  marked 
influence,  —  governors  and  ex-governors,  judges  and 
magistrates,  the  Boston  ministers,  members  of  Congress, 
professors  and  physicians.  To  them  what  Mr.  Emerson 
said  on  that  day  was  plainly  distasteful.  They  held 
down  their  heads,  and  looked  mortified,  as  people  look 
who  are  hearing  things  they  don't  like.  Meantime  the 


342        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

other  audience  in  front,  consisting  of  Emerson's  friends 
and  admirers,  listened  with  very  different  feelings  to 
the  charmed  speech  of  this  admirable  thinker.  They 
leaned  forward,  their  eyes  full  of  animation,  their  fea- 
tures radiant  with  delight.  They  applauded  with  rap- 
ture, while  the  platform  remained  silent  and  unmoved. 
It  was  very  curious  and  very  amusing  to  see  brought 
together  in  one  place  the  representatives  of  the  past  and 
of  the  future.  It  marked  a  turning-point  in  the  move- 
ment of  thought.  Something  like  this,  but  different 
from  it,  was  the  scene  of  Thursday  week. 

"When  I  knew  that  Wendell  Phillips  was  to  give 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  at  Cambridge,  I  was  very 
curious  to  know  what  course  he  would  take.  I  said, 
'He  has  two  opportunities,  neither  of  which  he  has 
ever  had  before.  He  has  always  spoken  to  the  people. 
Now  he  is  invited  to  address  scholars.  He  has  an 
opportunity  to  deliver  a  grand  academic  discourse,  and 
to  show,  that,  when  he  chooses  to  do  it,  he  can  be  the 
peer  of  Everett  or  Sumner  on  their  own  platform  of 
high  culture.  He  can  leave  behind  personalities,  forget 
for  the  hour  his  hatreds  and  enmities,  and  meet  all  his 
old  opponents  peacefully,  in  the  still  air  of  delightful 
studies.  This  is  an  opportunity  he  has  never  had 
before,  and  probably  will  never  have  again.' 

"  '  But  there  is  another  and  different  opportunity  now 
offered  him.  Now,  for  the  first  and  only  time,  he  will 
have  face  to  face  before  him  the  representatives  of  that 


NEAEING   THE  END.  343 

Cambridge  culture  which  has  had  little  sympathy  with 
his  past  labors.  He  can  tell  them  how  backward  they 
were  in  the  old  anti-slavery  contest,  and  how  reluctant 
to  take  part  in  any  later  reforms.  If  he  has  been  bitter 
before,  he  can  be  ten  times  as  bitter  now.  He  can 
make  this  the  day  of  judgment  for  the  sins  of  half  a 
century.  This  opportunity,  also,  is  unique.  It  will 
never  come  again.  Can  he  resist  this  temptation,  or 
not?' 

"  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  he  would  accept  and 
use  both  opportunities,  but  he  did  so.  He  gave  an 
oration  of  great  power  and  beauty,  full  of  strong 
thoughts  and  happy  illustrations,  not  unworthy  of  any 
university  platform  or  academic  scholar.  It  was  nearly, 
though  not  wholly,  free  from  personalities ;  but  it  was 
also  one  long  rebuke  for  the  recreant  scholarship  of 
Cambridge.  It  arraigned  and  condemned  all  scholar- 
ship as  essentially  timid,  selfish,  and  unheroic.  It  gave 
a  list  of  the  leading  reforms  of  the  last  forty  years,  in 
none  of  which  Cambridge  scholarship  had  taken  any 
share,  —  anti-slavery,  woman's  rights,  the  wrongs  of 
Ireland,  reform  in  criminal  legislation,  —  and  wound  up 
the  catalogue  by  denouncing  as  disgusting  cant  all  con- 
demnation of  Russian  Nihilism  and  its  methods.  He 
admitted,  that,  in  a  land  where  speech  and  the  press 
are  free,  recourse  to  assassination  is  criminal,  but  de- 
fended '  dynamite  and  the  dagger '  as  the  only  methods 
of  reform  open  in  Russia. 


344        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

"Thus  the  theme  which  he  elaborated  for  scholars 
was  the  essential  cowardice  of  scholarship. 

"  The  courage  of  the  oration,  and  its  honesty,  were 
both  apparent.  I  think  that  it  was  not  without  an 
effort  that  Phillips  brought  these  charges.  I  have  no 
doubt  it  was  done  as  a  duty.  He  wished  to  be  faithful 
there,  as  elsewhere,  to  his  real  convictions ;  not  to 
waste  his  time  on  any  mere  subject  of  idle  literature, 
but  to  talk  only  of  what  seemed  tohim  of  chief  impor- 
tance, whether  men  would  hear,  or  whether  they  would 
forbear.  From  this  point  of  view,  his  position  was  dig- 
nified and  honorable. 

"But  the  temper  of  the  audience  was  finer  still. 
There  were  no  two  audiences  present,  as  in  the  case 
of  Emerson.  The  whole  body  of  his  hearers  was  one 
in  respect  and  good  will.  They  honored  Phillips  for 
his  long  services  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  took 
every  occasion  to  applaud  his  own  sentiments  and  ca- 
reer. They  listened  in  silence  to  his  paradoxes,  his 
denunciations  of  scholarship,  his  defence  of  Nihilism. 
Their  disapproval  of  many  of  his  opinions  was  marked 
and  apparent.  It  was  evident  that  they  approved  of 
the  man,  and  disapproved  of  most  of  his  opinions. 
There  was  one  striking  incident  when  Phillips  (quoting 
the  words  of  Garrison)  described  the  man  who  would 
not  equivocate,  would  not  retreat  an  inch,  and  at  last 
would  be  heard.  Phillips  was  thinking  of  Garrison, 
but  the  audience  applied  it  to  himself.  They  received 


NEAEING    THE  END.  345 

the  sentence  with  repeated  thunders  of  applause.  This 
touched  him  deeply ;  and,  when  he  spoke  again,  there 
were  (as  the  French  say)  'tears  in  his  voice.'  The 
body  of  hearers,  in  their  silent  condemnation  and  their 
hearty  sympathy,  seemed  to  me  larger  and  more  just 
to  the  orator  than  the  orator  was  to  them.  For,  after 
all,  it  was  a  one-sided  argument.  Scholarship  may  be 
very  conservative ;  but  it  is  no  more  so  than  commerce, 
labor,  wealth,  journalism.  Every  working-element  in 
society  sticks  to  its  own  principles,  and  is  not  easily 
diverted  into  new  channels. 

"  It  seemed  to  me  that  Phillips  was  unjust  to  Cam- 
bridge scholarship  in  remembering  only  its  lapses,  and 
forgetting  its  examples  of  courage.  He  remembered 
Everett,  and  forgot  Sumner.  He  condemned  John 
Pierpont  for  one  action,  and  said  nothing  of  his  long 
career  of  courageous,  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  reform. 
Though  he  quoted  Lowell,  he  did  not  mention  him  as 
an  exception  to  his  censure.  He  forgot  to  remember 
the  combined  scholarship  and  courage  of  Theodore 
Parker,  equally  eminent  as  a  reformer  and  as  a  man 
of  learning.  When  we  recollect  that  Cambridge  has 
given  to  the  work  of  reform  such  scholars  as  Channing, 
Emerson,  Horace  Mann,  Theodore  Parker,  Charles 
Sumner,  Samuel  J.  May,  James  Russell  Lowell,  John 
Gorham  Palfrey,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Josiah  Quincy, 
we  see  that  there  is  another  side  to  the  question. 

"  Wendell  Phillips  had  a"  great  opportunity,  and  used 


346        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

it  well.  No  one  sympathized  with  the  extravagances 
of  his  statements.  It  was  unfortunate  that  he  should 
have  defended  assassination  in  Russia  by  the  argument 
of  necessity,  — '  necessity,  the  tyrant's  plea,'  —  an  argu- 
ment which  every  assassin  can  use,  from  his  own  point 
of  view,  with  equal  force.  If  it  seems  necessary  to  the 
Nihilists  to  assassinate  the  emperor,  because  they  have 
no  other  method,  so  it  seemed  necessary  to  Wilkes 
Booth  to  assassinate  Lincoln,  as  the  only  way  left  to 
do  any  thing  for  the  Lost  Cause.  And  even  the  luna- 
tic Guiteau,  using  the  same  argument,  claims  that  his 
murderous  act  was  done  from  '  a  political  necessity.' 

"  But,  after  all  abatements,  this  Phi  Beta  Kappa  ora- 
tion will  be  remembered  as  a  great  effort  of  intellectual 
and  moral  power.  Its  delivery,  and  the  way  it  was 
received,  constitute  an  important  event  in  the  history 
of  American  thought." 

The  venerable  Parker  Pillsbury,  in  a  letter  to  the 
editor  of  "The  Boston  Commonwealth,"  thus  alluded 
to  Mr.  Phillips's  oration  at  Cambridge :  — 

My  article  would  be  too  long  should  I  say  half  that  I  would  on 
the  oration.  Mr.  Phillips  would  have  died  too  soon,  had  he  de- 
parted without  pronouncing  it.  It  will  be  worth  to  the  college, 
officers,  and  students,  all  the  teachings  of  the  last  four  years.  His 
title  henceforth  should  be  "D.C.,"  Doctor  of  Colleges.  You,  Mr. 
Editor,  may  do  it  up  in  the  customary  Latin  if  you  think  best.  I 
began  to  be  a  little  mad  at  him  for  using  the  words  "  universal 
suffrage,"  as  though  we  had  it.  But  his  magnificent  demand  for 
woman's  equality  toward  the  close  made  all  perfectly  right.  His 


NEARING   THE  END.  347 

tribute  to  the  French  Revolution  was  super-excellent  and  just.    His 
mistake  about  Voltaire,  if  it  be  a  mistake,  I  trust  Mr.  Parton  will 

be  able  to  correct. 

PAEKER  PILLSBURY. 

CONCORD,  N.H.,  July  14, 1881. 

Mr.  George  William  Curtis,  speaking  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity, in  June,  1882,  paid  the  following  compliments 
to  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  of  the 
previous  year :  — 

"  A  year  ago  I  sat  with  my  brethren  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  at 
Cambridge,  and  seemed  to  catch  echoes  of  Edmund  Burke's  re- 
sounding impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  in  the  sparkling  de- 
nunciation of  the  timidity  of  American  scholarship.  Under  the 
spell  of  Burke's  burning  words,  Hastings  half  believed  himself  to 
be  the  villain  he  heard  described.  But  the  scholarly  audience  of 
the  scholarly  orator  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  with  an  exquisite 
sense  of  relief,  felt  every  count  of  his  stinging  indictment  recoil 
upon  himself.  He  was  the  glowing  refutation  of  his  own  argu- 
ment. Gentleman,  scholar,  orator,  his  is  the  courage  that  never 
quailed ;  his,  the  white  plume  of  Navarre  that  flashed  meteor-like 
in  the  front  of  battle ;  his,  the  Amphion  music  of  an  eloquence 
that  levelled  the  more  than  Theban  walls  of  American  slavery.  At 
once  judge,  accuser,  and  culprit,  in  the  noble  record  of  his  own  life 
he  and  his  class  are  triumphantly  acquitted." 

Mr.  Phillips,  as  is  well  known,  was  an  ardent  sup- 
porter of  the  Irish  cause.  All  through  the  Land- 
League  campaign,  he  addressed  meeting  after  meeting. 
When  the  Gladstone  government  turned  on  the  leaders, 
and  imprisoned  every  active  man  in  Ireland,  he  was 
the  one  man  whom  it  was  thought  could  fill  the  void. 


348        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

In  the  faint  hope  that  he  might  have  strength  left  to 
face  the  ocean  and  the  enemy,  he  was  the  object  of  an 
appeal.  But  it  could  not  be  made  possible  for  him  to 
accept,  as  the  following  correspondence  will  show :  — 

OFFICE  OF  "THE  IRISH  WORLD," 

NEW  YORK,  Oct.  31, 1881. 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  Boston. 

I  have  just  received  the  following  cable  from  Mr.  Egan,  Land- 
League  treasurer,  Paris :  — 

"  Will  Wendell  Phillips  come  to  Ireland,  to  advocate  No  Rent 
during  the  suspension  of  Constitutional  liberties?  The  League 
will  pay  all  expenses.  Reply.  PATRICK  EGAN." 

I  beg  you,  Mr.  Phillips,  to  hearken  to  this  as  an  inspiration  and 
a  call  from  God  himself.  You  are  the  one  man  in  America  fitted 
for  the  glorious  mission.  All  Ireland  will  rise  to  its  feet  to  ble&s 
and  cheer  you.  Never  did  Caesar  receive  such  an  ovation.  Civili- 
zation will  look  on  in  admiring  wonder.  The  good  which  your 
heroic  act  will  effect  is  incalculable ;  and  your  name,  consecrated  in 
the  memory  of  a  grateful  people,  will  live  whilst  time  endures. 

PATRICK  FORD. 

To  this  invitation  Mr.  Phillips  sent  the  following  re- 
ply, under  cover  of  a  note  to  Mr.  Ford :  — 

BOSTON,  2d  Nov.,  1881. 

Sir,  —  I  receive  with  humility  the  summons  you  send  me,  well 
knowing,  that,  in  any  circumstances,  I  could  not  do  a  tenth  part 
of  what  your  partiality  makes  you  think  I  could. 

But,  in  this  case,  humanity,  civil  liberty,  constitutional  govern- 
ment, and  civilization  itself  claim  his  best  service  of  every  man. 


BJHE^ — 

THE   ESSEX   STREET    HOUSE. 


NEAEING   THE  END.  349 

Ireland  to-day  leads  the  van  in  the  struggle  for  right,  justice, 
and  freedom. 

England  has  forfeited  her  right  to  rule,  if  she  ever  had  any,  by 
a  three  hundred  years'  exhibition  of  her  unfitness  and  inability  to 
do  so.  The  failure  is  confessed  by  all  her  statesmen  of  both  par- 
ties for  the  last  hundred  years. 

Discontent,  poverty,  famine,  and  death  are  her  accusers. 

Her  rulers  cannot  plead  ignorance.  Their  own  shameless  con- 
fessions, repeated  over  and  over  again,  admit  that  England's  rule 
has  been  unjust,  selfish,  and  cruel.  She  has  planned  that  Ireland 
should  starve,  hoping  she  would  then  be  too  weak  to  resist. 

To-day,  while  her  government  tramples  under  foot  every  princi- 
ple in  English  history  that  makes  men  honor  it,  the  world  waits 
in  sure  and  glad  expectation  of  her  defeat,  confident  that  her 
overthrow  will  be  the  triumph  of  right,  justice,  and  civilization. 

The  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  that  separate  us  from  her 
shores,  enable  us  to  judge  her  course  as  dispassionately  as  posterity 
will  judge  it  a  hundred  years  hence  ;  and  we  see  the  mad  blunders 
of  her  government  as  posterity  will  see  them. 

Let  Ireland  only  persevere,  and  her  victory  is  certain. 

With  unbroken  front,  let  her  assault  despotism  in  its  central 
point,  RENT.  Ireland  owes  none  to-day,  —  certainly  not  to  a  class 
whose  government  is  the  prison  and  the  bayonet. 

How  cheerfully  would  I  do  my  part!     How  gladly  would  I 
share  in   the  honors  of  such  a  struggle!     But  the  state  of  my 
health  obliges  me  to  give  up  public  speaking.     I  can  only  bid  you 
God-speed,  and  pray  for  your  speedy  and  complete  success. 
Yours  very  respectfully, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Phillips's  home  was  in  Essex 
Street,  Boston,  a  quiet  street,  now  almost  wholly  de- 


350        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

voted  to  business.  Near  by,  in  Exeter  Place,  lived 
Theodore  Parker,  the  neighbor  and  bosom-friend  of 
Phillips.  Although  socially  attached  to  one  another, 
in  theology  these  genial  spirits  never  agreed,  for  the 
reason  that  Mr.  Phillips  was  born  and  bred,  and  always 
remained,  a  Calvinist.  This  fact,  however,  did  not  in- 
terfere with  their  friendship.  But,  while  Parker  was 
fully  informed  of  the  secret  plans  of  John  Brown  in 
1858,  it  was  not  until  1859,  and  then  not  fully,  that 
Brown  saw  fit  to  communicate  them  to  Phillips,  who 
probably  knew  of  them  but  generally.  Yet,  after 
Brown's  death,  Mr.  Phillips,  who  spoke  at  his  funeral 
in  North  Elba,  brought  thence  the  correspondence 
between  Brown  and  his  Boston  friends,  which  would 
have  made  a  great  stir  had  it  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
his  opponents.  These  papers  Phillips  deposited  with 
John  A.  Andrew;  and  from  him,  in  the  winter  of 
1859-60,  the  correspondents  got  back  their  dangerous 
epistles. 

To  allude  again  to  the  old  home:  it  was  a  brick 
house,  rather  narrow,  of  three  stories  and  a  half. 
Painted  on  the  door,  in  black  letters  on  a  dark  ground, 
was  the  name  — 


PHILLIPS. 


Two  or  three  servants  looked  after  the  domestic  de- 
tails.of  the  house ;  and,  long  before  there  was  any  talk- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  351 

ing  about  servant-girls'  rights,  he  was  quietly  granting 
them,  both  in  the  form  of  greater  leisure  and  higher 
wages.  When  a  stranger  appeared  at  the  door,  and 
asked  for  Mr.  Phillips,  a  servant  never  falsified:  she 
said  "Yes"  or  "No,"  or  "Yes,  but  he  is  engaged." 
Mr.  Phillips  was  never  guilty  of  the  meanness  of  com- 
pelling his  servants,  not  only  to  work  for  their  wages, 
but  to  tell  lies  for  his  convenience,  —  one  of  the  cow- 
ardly customs  America  has  borrowed  from  European 
domestic  despotism. 

The  house  was  not  elegantly  furnished.  On  passing 
the  doorway,  the  stranger  found  himself  in  a  narrow 
entry,  not  hall,  with  a  door  to  the  left,  opening  into  a 
dining-room,  and  at  the  bottom  of  a  flight  of  stairs 
with  a  well-worn,  cheap  carpet  on  them.  The  stairs 
had  old-fashioned  banisters,  of  the  "  mould-candle " 
style.  The  walls  of  the  entry  were  covered  with  a 
dark,  greenish  paper,  that  had  been  there  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Instead  of  the  inartistic 
or  upholstered  hat-tree,  there  was  a  high,  old-time  hat- 
rack,  with  wooden  pegs,  painted  white  long  ago.  On 
the  floor  was  a  well-worn  oilcloth.  Every  thing  was  as 
neat  and  clean  as  it  could  be  kept. 

At  the  top  of  the  stairs  was  a  narrow  passage,  open- 
ing into  a  front  room.  This  was  the  parlor  and  re- 
ception room,  the  width  of  the  house,  and  rather 
low-studded.  The  walls  were  painted  a  yellowish 
white.  There  was  an  old,  cheap,  but  neat  and  not 


3^2        LIFE  AND   TINES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

gaudy,  reddish  carpet  on  the  floor.  The  furniture  was 
old-fashioned,  and  made  chiefly  of  mahogany.  Beneath 
the  large,  old-time  mirror,  between  the  windows,  stood 
a  table  covered  with  books,  papers,  and  magazines. 
The  books  were  chiefly  of  political  economy  and  politi- 
cal philosophy,  and  were  all  in  English.  In  the  centre 
of  the  room  was  a  large  mahogany  table,  with  side- 
leaves  ;  and  it,  too,  was  covered  with  books,  papers, 
etc.,  and  with  perhaps  hundreds  of  letters,  manuscripts, 
and  the  like.  On  the  left-hand  side,  as  one  entered 
the  room,  was  a  large,  heavy  sofa ;  near  the  window  a 
bust  of  Bowditch  on  a  wooden  pedestal  made  from  the 
rafter  of  his  house,  or  some  of  his  furniture.  Near  the 
door  was  a  tall,  old-fashioned  what-not,  with  books  on 
every  shelf,  and  Brackett's  bust  of  John  Brown  on  the 
top.  Opposite,  on  the  mantel-piece  over  the  fireplace, 
there  was  a  French  clock,  small  statuettes  of  Theodore 
Parker  and  John  Knox,  and  a  few  tasteful  ornaments. 
A  folding-door,  always  closed,  led  into  a  dark  room, 
where  Mr.  Phillips  kept  his  library,  by  no  means  an 
extensive  one.  Between  this  folding-door  and  the 
door  of  entrance  was  another  small  table,  with  books, 
and  a  photographic  portrait  of  John  Brown.  In  the 
farther  corner  of  the  room  stood  Martin  Milmore's 
masterpiece,  a  bust  of  Phillips.  There  were  no  pic- 
tures on  the  walls ;  and,  such  as  it  was,  it  was  the  best 
room  in  the  house.  With  the  rest  of  this  modest  home, 
the  public  has  no  concern. 


NEAEING   THE  END.  353 

For  forty  years  and  more,  Phillips,  with  his  wife, 
and  part  of  the  time  his  adopted  daughter  (now  the 
wife  of  Mr.  G.  W.  Smalley  of  London,  England),  lived 
there.  In  1882  came  the  summons  from  the  city  gov- 
ernment of  Boston  to  quit.  The  exigencies  of  trade, 
and  other  projects,  compelled  an  alteration  in  the  thor- 
oughfare ;  and  Mr.  Phillips's  house  was  doomed  to  be 
razed  to  the  ground.  In  sorrow,  which  he  keenly  felt, 
he  removed  his  household  gods  into  a  still  smaller  and 
equally  unattractive  house,  located  in  Common  Street, 
near  the  corner  of  Tremont.  From  that  day  his  heart 
failed  him  ;  he  began  to  grow  old  fast ;  there  he  died. 

At  the  time  of  his  removal  from  his  Essex-street 
home,  Mr.  Phillips  made  a  disposition  of  the  larger  por- 
tion of  his  library ;  having,  as  he  thought,  no  further 
use  for  it.  The  following  letter,  dated  Aug.  16,  1882, 
and  addressed  to  Mr.  Aaron  M.  Powell,  formerly  editor 
of  "The  American  Anti-slavery  Standard,"  discloses 
what  was  done  with  his  valuable  collection  of  books :  — 

"  You  ought  to  know  what  I  did  with  my  anti-slavery  library. 
Did  I  tell  you  ?  I  sent  a  complete  file  of  « The  Standard,'  from 
1840  to  1872,  to  Mr.  Spofford,  for  the  Congressional  Library ;  also 
three  volumes  of  'The  Liberator,'  to  fill  up  his  gaps,  which  are 
not  now  many.  I  sent  the  Astor  Library  a  complete  file  of  « The 
Liberator.'  It  had  all «  The  Standards.'  I  sent  the  Boston  Pub- 
lic Library  a  complete  file  of  *  The  Standard '  (it  had  almost 
perfect  'Liberator'),  also  all  my  reports,  pamphlets,  and  surplus 
numbers  of  newspapers,  bound  and  unbound,  *  Emancipators  '  and 
'Herald  of  Freedom,'  they  agreeing  to  distribute.  I  had  none 


354        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

to  fill  up  the  reports  you  needed ;  but,  if  you  find  any  at  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Library,  they  were  told  of  your  prior  right.  Swarth- 
moro  College  I  could  not  help,  not  having  enough,  and  deeming 
the  Astor,  Boston,  and  Washington  Libraries  more  important.  I 
offered  Cornell  Library,  vols.  iii.,  iv.,  and  v.  of  '  The  Liberator,* 
to  help  its  file.  So,  you  see,  I  have  acted  as  my  own  executor,  to 
get  rid  of  twenty-five  hundred  volumes." 

The  unveiling  exercises  over  Miss  Anne  Whitney's 
statue  "*of  Harriet  Martineau  were  held  in  the  Old- 
South  Meeting-house,  Dec.  26,  1883.  A  large  audience 
were  present,  the  most  of  them  being  ladies.  After 
the  applause  attending  the  unveiling  had  subsided, 
addresses  were  made  by  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore,  who 
presided  on  the  occasion,  William  L.  Garrison,  jun., 
and  Wendell  Phillips.  As  Mr.  Phillips  advanced  to 
the  front  of  the  stage,  he  was  greeted  with  a  hearty 
welcome.  He  then  began,  and  continued  as  follows :  — 

"Webster  once  said,  that  'In  war  there  are  no  Sundays.'  So  in 
moral  questions  there  are  no  nations.  Intellect  and  morals  tran- 
scend all  limits.  When  a  moral  issue  is  stirred,  then  there  is  no 
American,  no  German.  We  are  all  men  and  women.  And  that 
is  the  reason  why  I  think  we  should  indorse  this  memorial  of  the 
city  to  Harriet  Martineau,  because  her  service  transcends  nation- 
ality. There  would  be  nothing  inappropriate  if  we  raised  a 
memorial  to  Wickliffe,  or  if  the  common-school  system  of  New 
England  raised  a  memorial  to  Calvin ;  for  they  rendered  the  great- 
est of  services.  So  with  Harriet  Martineau,  we  might  fairly  render 
a  monument  to  the  grandest  woman  of  her  day,  we,  the  heirs  of 
the  same  language,  and  one  in  the  same  civilization;  for  steam 
and  the  telegraph  have  made,  not  many  nations,  but  one,  in  perfect 


N EARING    THE  END.  355 

unity  in  the  world  of  thought,  purpose,  and  intellect.  And  there 
could  be  no  fault  found  in  thus  recognizing  this  counsellor  of 
princes,  and  adviser  of  ministers,  this  woman  who  has  done  more 
for  beneficial  changes  in  t^e  English  world  than  any  ten  men  in 
Great  Britain.  In  an  epoch  fertile  of  great  genius  among  women, 
it  may  be  said  of  Miss  Martineau,  that  she  was  the  peer  of  the 
noblest,  and  that  her  influence  on  the  progress  of  the  age  waa 
more  than  equal  to  that  of  all  the  others  combined.  She  has  the 
great  honor  of  having  always  seen  truth  one  generation  ahead; 
and  so  consistent  was  she,  so  keen  of  insight,  that  there  is  no  need 
of  going  back  to  explain  by  circumstances  in  order  to  justify  the 
actions  of  her  life.  This  can  hardly  be  said  of  any  great  English- 
man, even  by  their  admirers.  We  place  the  statue  here  in  Boston 
because  she  has  made  herself  an  American.  She  passed  through 
this  city  on  the  very  day  when  the  father  of  my  honored  friend 
was  mobbed  on  State  Street.  Her  friends  feared  to  tell  her  the 
truth  when  she  asked  what  the  immense  crowd  were  doing,  and 
dissimulated  by  saying  it  was  post-time,  and  the  throng  were 
hurrying  to  the  office  for  the  mail.  Afterward,  when  she  heard 
of  the  mob  and  its  action,  horror-struck,  she  turned  to  her  host, 
the  honored  president  of  a  neighboring  university;  and  even  he 
was  American  enough  to  assure  her  that  no  harm  could  come 
from  such  a  gathering ;  said  it  was  not  a  mob,  it  was  a  collection, 
or  gathering.  Harriet  Martineau  had  been  welcomed  all  over 
America.  She  had  been  received  by  Calhoun  in  South  Carolina, 
the  chief  justice  of  Virginia  had  welcomed  her  at  his  mansion. 
But  she  went  through  the  South  concealing  no  repugnance,  mak- 
ing her  obeisance  to  no  idol.  She  never  bowed  anywhere  to  the 
aristocracy  of  accident.  This  brave  head  and  heart  held  its  own 
throughout  that  journey.  She  came  here  to  gain  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  abolitionists,  and  her  first  experience  was  with 
the  mob  on  State  Street.  Of  course  she  expressed  all  the  horror 


356        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

which  a  gallant  soul  would  feel.  You  may  speak  of  the  magna- 
nimity and  courage  of  Harriet  Martineau;  but  the  first  element 
is  her  rectitude  jof  purpose,  by  which  was  born  that  true  instinct 
which  saw  through  all  things.  We  have  had  Englishmen  come 
here,  who  were  clear-sighted  enough  to  say  true  words  after  they 
returned  home;  but  this  was  a  woman  who  was  welcomed  by 
crowds  in  the  South,  and  about  whom  a  glamour  was  thrown  to 
prevent  her  from  seeing  the  truth.  It  is  easy  to  be  independent 
when  all  behind  you  agree  with  you,  but  the  difficulty  comes  when 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  your  friends  think  you  wrong. 
Then  it  is  the  brave  soul  who  stands  up,  one  among  a  thousand, 
but  remembering  that  one  with  God  makes  a  majority.  This  was 
Harriet  Martineau.  She  was  surrounded  by  doctors  of  divinity, 
who  were  hedging  her  about  with  their  theories  and  beliefs. 
What  do  some  of  these  later  travellers  who  have  been  here  know 
of  the  real  New  England,  when  they  have  been  seated  in  sealed 
houses,  and  gorged  with  the  glittering  banquets  of  social  societies  ? 
Harriet  Martineau,  instead  of  lingering  in  the  camps  of  the  Phil- 
istines, could,  with  courage,  declare,  *  I'll  go  among  the  abolition- 
ists, and  see  for  myself.'  Shortly  after  the  time  of  the  State-street 
mob,  she  came  to  Cambridge ;  and  her  hosts  there  begged  her  not 
to  put  her  hand  into  their  quarrels.  The  abolitionists  held  a 
meeting  there.  The  only  hall  of  that  day  open  to  them  was 
owned  by  infidels.  Think  of  that,  ye  friends  of  Christianity. 
And  yet  the  infidelity  of  that  day  is  the  Christianity  of  to-day. 
To  this  meeting  in  this  hall  Miss  Martineau  went,  to  express  her 
entire  sympathy  with  the  occasion.  As  a  result  of  her  words  and 
deeds,  such  was  the  lawlessness  of  that  time,  that  she  had  to  turn 
back  from  her  intended  journey  to  the  West,  and  was  assured  that 
she  would  be  lynched  if  she  dared  set  foot  in  Ohio.  She  gave  up 
her  journey,  but  not  her  principles. 

"  Harriet  Martineau  saw,  not  merely  the  question  of  free  speech, 


NEARING   THE  END.  357 

but  the  grandeur  of  the  great  movement  just  then  opened.  This 
great  movement  is  second  only  to  the  Reformation  in  the  history 
of  the  English  and  the  German  race.  In  time  to  come,  when  the 
grandeur  of  this  movement  is  set  forth  in  history,  you  will  see  its 
grand  and  beneficial  results.  Harriet  Martineau  saw  it  fifty  years 
ago,  and  after  that  she  was  one  of  us.  She  was  always  the  friend 
of  the  poor.  Prisoner,  slave,  worn  out  by  toil  in  the  mill,  no 
matter  who  the  sufferer,  there  was  always  one  person  who  could 
influence  Tory  and  Liberal  to  listen.  Americans,  I  ask  you  to 
welcome  to  Boston  this  statue  of  Harriet  Martineau,  because  she 
was  the  greatest  American  abolitionist.  We  want  our  children 
to  see  the  woman  who  came  to  observe,  and  remained  to  work, 
and,  having  once  put  her  hand  to  the  plough,  persevered  until 
she  was  allowed  to  live  where  the  psean  of  the  emancipated  four 
millions  went  up  to  heaven,  showing  the  attainment  of  her  great 
desire. " 


How  many  that  listened  to  these  noble  words 
dreamed  that  they  were  to  be  the  last  which  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  defender  of  equal  rights  and  equal  bur- 
dens for  all  men  and  women  under  the  law,  would  ever 
utter  in  public  ?  The  heart  that  had  so  long  beat  for 
others,  the  silvery  voice  that  had  so  long  spoken  for 
the  suffering  and  oppressed,  the  perfect  manhood  that 
had  so  long  existed  for  the  good  of  all  humanity,  now 
felt  the  weight  of  years,  and  were  already  weakening 
beneath  the  pressure. 

The  new  year  came ;  but  it  brought  only  misgivings, 
the  full  meaning  of  which  Mr.  Phillips  seems  now  to 
have  interpreted  rightly.  On  Saturday  evening,  Feb. 


358        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

2,  at  quarter-past  six  o'clock,  the  great  orator  passed 
from  earth. 

He  had  been  seriously  ill,  only  since  the  Saturday  of 
the  previous  week.  On  the  morning  of  that  day  he 
was  seized  with  an  attack .  of  heart  disease.  A  physi- 
cian was  promptly  summoned,  who  pronounced  the 
trouble  to  be  angina  pectoris^  —  the  same  malady  which 
had  brought  Charles  Sumner  to  his  grave,  and  which, 
having  caused  the  death  of  Mr.  Phillips's  father  and 
three  brothers,  was  greatly  dreaded  by  the  friends  and 
relatives  of  the  orator. 

The  disease  made  rapid  progress.  He  was  confined 
to  his  bed  on  Sunday,  suffering  terrible  pains ;  and  his 
physician,  Dr.  Thayer,  was  called  to  the  house  no  less 
than  four  times.  By  well-directed  efforts  the  patient 
appeared  to  rally,  and  hopes  were  entertained  of  his 
recovery.  But  on  Wednesday  came  a  relapse,  so  seri- 
ous in  its  nature  that  constant  medical  attendance  be- 
came necessary.  On  Thursday,  the  31st  inst.,  Mr. 
Phillips's  condition  was  exceedingly  critical;  and  at 
midnight  it  was  thought  that  he  would  not  survive 
until  morning.  Again  he  rallied,  however,  but  with 
only  temporary  relief.  The  exertion  of  moving  in  bed 
taxed  him  severely,  and  renewed  paroxysms  of  pain, 
which  necessitated  the  employment  of  anaesthetics. 

No  one  now  doubted  that  the  end  was  approaching : 
even  the  patient  realized  this  fact.  When  the  doctor 
told  him  the  probable  result,  he  replied,  — 


WENDELL-  PHILLIPS       LATE     RESIDENCE 

THE   COMMON   STREET   HOUSE. 


NEAEING   THE  END.  359 

"  I  have  no  fear  of  death.  I  am  as  ready  to  die  to- 
day as  at  any  time." 

Still,  he  expressed  a  desire  to  outlive  Mrs.  Phillips, 
that  he  might  care  for  her.  In  fact,  during  all  the 
agony  of  his  illness,  when  racked  with  pain,  his 
thoughts  invariably  ^centred  on  his  invalid  wife. 

On  Friday,  Mr.  Phillips  being  no  better,  a  consulta- 
tion of  physicians  was  held ;  but  all  agreed  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  patient.  He  grew  easier  during  the 
forenoon,  and  was  comfortable  at  noon.  Friday  even- 
ing the  pain  returned,  but  afterward  passed  away ;  and 
the  attending  physician,  who  remained  with  him,  said 
that  he  passed  a  comfortable  night. 

On  Saturday  he  suffered  but  little  pain  until  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  he  attempted  to 
rise  ;  but  the  exertion  proved  too  much  for  him,  and  he 
fainted.  He  was  laid  back  in  the  bed,  when  a  severe 
pain  seized  him.  Anaesthetics  were  applied,  and  quiet 
followed  their  administration.  The  loving  wife  and 
sisters,  and  other  relatives,  gathered  around  the  bed- 
side, watching  the  slow  but  certain  passage  through 
the  dark  valley.  The  last  hour  of  life  was  one  of  per- 
fect peace ;  and,  as  though  reposing  in  the  slumber  of 
a  little  child,  Mr.  Phillips  passed  from  life  to  eternity 
without  a  struggle.  Bravely  facing  death,  thankful  for 
the  slightest  attention,  thinking  naught  of  himself,  but 
of  the  loved  one  with  whom  and  for  whom  he  had 
lived  so  many  years,  he  died  as  he  had  lived,  ready  to 
make  any  sacrifice  for  others. 


360        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Wendell  Phillips  was  dead :  the  perfect  orator  was  no 
more.  The  eloquent  lips  were  silenced.  The  tidings 
were  borne  far  and  wide,  and  it  was  hard  to  believe 
them  true.  It  was  a  time  for  memories  and  for  trib- 
utes. The  former  were  unsealed,  the  latter  were  forth- 
coming. 

In  every  home  in  Boston,  the  death  of  Mr.  Phillips 
was  discussed  on  Sunday ;  and  clergymen  alluded  to  it 
from  the  pulpits.  On  Monday  a  public  meeting  was 
held  at  the  Tremont  House,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Labor-Reformers;  and  arrangements  were  made  for  a 
public  memorial  meeting  on  the  following  evening  at 
Faneuil  Hall.  On  the  same  day  a  special  meeting  of 
the  City  Council  was  called,  to  take  appropriate  action ; 
and  for  the  same  purpose  a  committee  was  appointed 
in  the  State  Legislature.  The  public  press  everywhere 
referred  to  his  death  as  though  it  were  a  national 
bereavement.  By  public  or  private  speech,  by  letter, 
by  the  telegraph,  or  by  the  cable,  from  far  and  wide, 
everybody  expressed  kind  words  and  feeling  tributes 
for  the  dead.  In  at  least  two  instances,  the  eulogies 
were  not  only  true,  but  epigrammatic.  Said  Joseph 
Cook,  "  Fifty  years  hence  it  will  not  be  asked, '  What 
did  Boston  think  of  Wendell  Phillips?'  but,  'What  did 
Wendell  Phillips  think  of  Boston  ? '  "  Said  O'Donovan 
Rossa,  "  Wendell  Phillips,  of  America,  is  dead  in  Bos- 
ton." 

The  very  atmosphere,  full  of  Phillips  as  he  died,  and 


NEARING   THE  END.  361 

articulating  itself  in  thousand-fold  manner,  more  than 
any  or  all  particular  written  or  spoken  eulogies,  seemed 
to  commemorate  a  man  not  to  be  spared  from  American 
history,  and  without  whom  this  country  could  not  have 
done. 

A  service  over  the  remains  was  held  on  Wednesday 
forenoon,  the  6th  inst.,  in  the  Hollis-street  Church. 
Long  before  the  hour  appointed  for  the  beginning  of 
the  exercises,  people  had  assembled  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  church ;  and,  when  the  doors  were  open,  such  seats 
as  were  not  reserved  were  quickly  filled.  The  two 
races  to  whom  Mr.  Phillips  had  been  a  conspicuous 
friend  were  well  represented  in  the  throng,  and  ap- 
peared deeply  touched  as  the  preachers  uttered  affec- 
tionate words  over  the  form  that  had  been  near  and 
dear  to  them. 

As  the  old  clock  in  the  belfry  struck  the  hour  of 
eleven,  the  remains  were  borne  up  the  centre  aisle  to  a 
resting-place  in  front  of  the  pulpit.  Judge  Sewell,  Dr. 
Holmes,  Theodore  D.  Weld,  Hon.  John  M.  Forbes,  W. 
P.  Garrison,  Lewis  Hayden,  W.  I.  Bowditch,  Charles 
K.  Whipple,  Richard  Hallowell,  and  Edward  M.  Davis 
were  the  pall-bearers.  The  casket  was  covered  with 
broadcloth,  and  on  the  plate  was  inscribed,  — 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

DIED  FEB.  2,  1884, 
AGED  72  YEARS. 


362        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  casket  was  closed ;  and  at  its  head  lay  a  miniature 
sheaf  of  ripened  wheat,  and  a  wreath  of  ivy-leaves 
bound  with  purple  ribbon. 

As  the  funeral  procession  moved  forward,  the  organ- 
ist, Mr.  John  A.  Preston  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  played 
Chopin's  "Funeral  March."  The  choir  then  chanted 
Longfellow's  "Angels  of  Consolation."  Rev.  Samuel 
Longfellow  read  parts  of  the  Scripture,  and  offered  a 
prayer  of  much  fervor.  A  few  remarks  and  a  prayer 
by  Rev.  Mr.  May  concluded  the  exercises  at  the 
church. 

After  the  casket  had  been  borne  out,  and  placed  in 
the  hearse,  a  procession  was  formed  to  Faneuil  Hall. 
Along  the  whole  route,  the  sidewalks  were  lined  with 
spectators ;  and  nearly  every  window  was  crowded  with 
people. 

At  a  quarter  past  twelve  the  funeral  cortege,  to  the 
music  of  two  muffled  drums,  arrived  at  the  eastern 
entrance  to  Faneuil  Hall;  Company  M  of  the  Sixth 
Regiment,  and  the  Shaw  Veterans,  in  command  of 
Major  Watkins,  forming  the  guard  of  honor.  The  en- 
tire military  escort  was  thus  most  fittingly  composed 
of  colored  men.  When  the  procession  came  to  a  halt, 
the  remains  were  lifted  from  the  funeral-car,  and  borne 
to  the  hall,  by  four  white  men,  and  the  same  number  of 
colored  soldiers  from  the  guard  of  honor.  Directly  in 
front  of  the  platform,  from  which  so  many  times  the 
stirring  voice  of  the  great  abolitionist  had  been  heard, 


NEARING   THE  END.  363 

was  placed  his  body,  that  the  thousands  might  take  one 
last  look  at  his  face.  In  the  centre  of  the  hall  was  an 
enclosed  space,  containing  a  platoon  of  police,  around 
which  the  throng  passed  during  the  afternoon. 

The  floral  tributes  were  few,  but  beautiful  in  the  ex- 
treme. On  the  centre  of  the  platform  was  a  mound 
of  flowers  about  three  by  four  feet.  In  the  centre  of 
it  was  the  word  "  Humanity,"  in  fresh  violets  on  a  bed 
of  carnations.  Around  the  carnations  were  wreaths 
composed  of  Niphetos  roses,  shamrock,  hyacinths,  pan- 
sies,  and  smilax.  This  beautiful  tribute  was  presented 
by  the  Irish  National  League  of  Boston.  On  the  east- 
erly end  of  the  platform  was  a  harp  four  feet  in  height, 
composed  of  ivy-leaves,  dotted  with  japonica  blossoms 
and  pansies.  On  the  base  of  the  harp  was  the  word 
"  Ireland,"  in  violets  on  a  bed  of  carnations ;  and 
around  the  base  were  numerous  calla  lilies.  The 
strings  of  the  harp  were  of  silver,  and  one  of  them  was 
broken,  emblematical  of  a  life  departed.  This  was  pre- 
sented by  the  Irish- American  societies  of  Boston. 

On  the  westerly  end  of  the  platform  was  the  tribute 
presented  by  Ex-Governor  Butler.  It  was  a  crown  of 
ivy,  about  two  feet  in  height,  dotted  with  Niphetos 
roses,  japonicas,  and  pansies.  On  the  coffin  was  a 
wreath  of  laurel  and  a  sheaf  of  wheat,  the  latter  tied 
with  lavender  ribbon,  presented  by  George  E.  Hosier. 

After  the  relatives  and  friends,  who  followed  the 
dead  to  the  hall  in  carriages,  had  taken  a  last  look  at 


364        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

all  that  was  mortal  of  the  departed,  the  military  com- 
panies marched  in,  and  stacked  arms  on  one  side  of  the 
hall.  A  body-guard  was  detailed,  to  stand  watch  over 
the  remains ;  and  sentinels  were  posted  at  various 
points,  to  assist  the  police-officers  in  managing  the 
crowd.  At  one  corner  of  the  platform  the  battle-flag 
of  the  old  Fifty-fourth  Regiment,  which  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Shaw  Veterans,  was  borne.  Opposite 
were  the  colors  recently  presented  to  the  same  associa- 
tion. 

The  assemblage  in  front  of  the  Cradle  of  Liberty 
seemed  to  grow  larger  as  the  hours  went  on.  Orderly 
and  intent  upon  their  mission  as  the  great  gathering 
proved,  it  was  no  small  task  for  the  officers  of  the 
police  and  the  guard  of  honor  to  guide  them  aright. 
Nearly  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  procession  arrived 
at  the  hall,  the  doors  were  opened  to  the  public.  The 
police  arrangements  were  admirably  made,  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  any  confusion.  The  incoming  crowd 
was  given  entrance  through  the  eastern  portal  of  the 
hall ;  while  those  who  had  looked  upon  the  face  of  the 
dead,  made  their  departure  through  the  other  broad 
doorway. 

The  throng  was  emphatically  a  gathering  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men  and  women.  Old  anti-slavery 
workers,  such  as  John  W.  Hutchinson,  who  sang  the 
cause  of  freedom  for  the  slave  so  effectively  in  early 
war-times,  were  there.  The  friends  of  the  woman-suf- 


NEAEING   THE  END.  365 

frage  cause  took  the  opportunity  afforded  of  a  last  look 
at  the  remains  of  their  lost  leader.  It  was  fitting  that 
men  in  their  working-clothes,  toilers  who  could  afford 
no  time  for  preparation,  should  be  noted  here  and  there 
in  the  line.  Next  to  one  of  these,  perhaps,  would  come 
a  dignitary  of  State  Street,  or  some  merchant  well-to- 
do,  who  had  opposed  the  agitator  all  his  life,  but  had 
yet  respected  all  the  while  his  absolute  purity  of  mo- 
tive and  intensity  of  purpose.  The  crowd,  adjured 
now  and  then  to  "  Keep  in  line,"  "  Keep  moving, 
please,"  was  as  democratic,  in  truth,  as  such  an  occa- 
sion should  have  called  together.  Few  words  were 
spoken,  but  tears  often  gave  keener  expression  to  the 
thought  of  the  great  heart  of  Boston.  Men  of  every 
race  and  of  all  walks  in  life,  agitators  of  all  names, 
people  widely  differing  in  their  views  on  well-nigh 
every  other  subject,  were  as  one  in  this  purpose  of 
honoring,  so  far  as  their  presence  could  honor,  the 
memory  and  the  great  work  of  the  "silver-tongued" 
orator,  whose  voice  can  no  more  be  heard  among  men. 

White-haired  old  gentlemen,  whose  tottering  foot- 
steps showed  declining  strength  and  years,  passed  by 
with  bowed  head,  and  dropped  a  reverent  "God  bless 
him  !  "  Aged  women  stood  with  tears  in  their  eyes  as 
they  thought  of  their  boys  who  had  fought  and  died 
for  the  same  cause  that  Wendell  Phillips  had  so 
grandly  espoused.  Young  men  and  women  looked 
in  sadness  upon  the  features  of  him  whom  they  had 


366        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

listened  to  with  admiration  in  that  very  hall.  Then, 
there  were  hundreds  of  boys  and  girls  assembled,  to 
obtain  a  single  glance  at  one  they  had  often  heard  of 
with  pride.  Occasionally  a  father  would  pass  by  with 
his  child' in  his  arms;  and,  as  the  tears  flowed  down 
his  face,  the  little  one  would  look  as  if  dazed,  and  then 
burst  into  weeping.  Children,  whose  heads  barely 
reached  above  the  casket,  were  lifted  up,  that  they 
might  look  upon  the  face  of  him  they  had  never  heard, 
but  whose  addresses  they  will  read  and  be  thrilled  by 
in  the  coming  years. 

The  colored  race,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  well 
represented  in  the  long  line  of  passers-by.  In  fact,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  entire  colored  population  of  the  city 
had  assembled.  They  would  gaze  reverently  upon  the 
face  of  him  whom  they  considered  almost  divine,  and 
then,  looking  up  at  the  battle-flag  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Regiment,  would  burst  into  tears  as  its  tattered  shreds 
brought  vividly  before  them  the  scenes  of  their  old 
bondage. 

Many  warm  expressions  of  admiration  for  the  de- 
ceased were  heard  on  every  side,  but  the  colored  peo- 
ple were  the  most  demonstrative.  "  Bress  de  Lord !  he 
am  gone  to  de  New  Jerus'lem,  shoah,"  said  an  old 
colored  lady,  as  she  reverently  raised  her  hands,  as  if 
invoking  a  blessing.  Another  was  heard  to  remark, 
feelingly,  "  He  was  de  best  fren'  we  ever  hed.  We 
owes  him  a  heap." 


NEARING   THE  END.  367 

Many  touching  and  expressive  incidents  and  scenes 
happened  during  the  afternoon.  An  old  colored  lady- 
hesitated  a  moment,  as  if  she  would  take  one  more 
glance  at  that  face,  and  then  as  she  turned  away,  with 
every  feature  expressing  the  deepest  sorrow,  murmured 
to  herself,  "  Our  Wendell  Phillips  has  gone."  Behind 
her  came  an  old  soldier.  As  he  stood  there  for  a  second, 
he  said,  as  if  in  deep  thought,  "  We  all  fought  for  the 
same  cause,  and  suffered  alike." 

On  the  platform,  at  half-past  one  o'clock,  were  seen 
the  familiar  face  and  form  of  Frederick  Douglass. 
Many  a  glance  from  the  passing  multitude  below  was 
directed  towards  the  tall  figure,  white-haired,  of  noble 
presence,  evidently  much  affected  by  the  scenes  of  the 
day.  At  his  side  stood  the  golden-haired  wife  whom  he 
has  so  lately  wedded,  scarcely  less  moved  than  her  hus- 
band by  the  scenes  of  the  day.  It  was  but  a  few  mo- 
ments before,  that  he  had  passed  the  casket  of  the  dead. 
As  he  gazed  at  the  features  of  Phillips,  there  seemed  to 
be  a  pause  for  a  moment  in  the  current  of  humanity 
that  had  so  steadily  set  toward  the  platform.  Douglass 
was  affected  to  tears,  and  bowed  his  head,  saying  brief 
words  of  regret  and  farewell  to  the  leader  so  idolized 
by  his  race.  Surrounded  by  some  of  the  best  colored 
citizens  of  Boston,  Mr.  Douglass  said  to  a  friend,  "  I 
came  here  not  only  to  see  the  remains  of  my  dear  friend. 
I  wanted  to  see  this  throng,  and  to  see  the  hold  that 
this  man  had  upon  the  community.  It  is  a  wonderful 
tribute." 


368        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

As  the  hours  went  by,  with  no  sign  of  abatement  in 
the  number  of  pilgrims  to  the  old  hall,  but  a  constant 
stream  of  people  pressing  to  do  honor  to  the  dead,  the 
great  significance  of  the  demonstration  became  more 
and  more  evident.  It  was  a  gathering  long  to  be  re- 
membered, arid  but  seldom  equalled  in  numbers  at  any 
similar  occasion  of  honor  to  the  illustrious  departed. 
At  ten  minutes  after  four  the  procession  was  stopped, 
and  the  doors  closed;  although  thousands  were  still 
waiting  outside,  and  were  thus  obliged  to  go  away  with- 
out obtaining  a  farewell  glance  at  the  familiar  features 
of  the  "  silver-tongued  "  orator. 

After  the  doors  of  Faneuil  Hall  were  closed  in  the 
afternoon,  no  more  were  admitted  to  see  the  face  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  The  crowd  gathered  about  the  door, 
and  all  the  space  around  the  hall  was  thronged  with 
people.  The  hall  was  cleared  of  all  but  a  few  of  the 
most  intimate  friends,  one  or  two  gentlemen  necessarily 
present,  and  the  guard.  Before  the  kindly  face  of  Mr. 
Phillips  was  covered  forever  by  the  casket-lid,  a  cast  of 
the  features  was  taken  by  Mr.  P.  A.  Garey. 

At  about  half-past  four  the  guard  filed  out  of  the  hall, 
and  formed  in  line,  facing  the  hearse,  which  stood  at 
the  door.  The  crowd  in  the  mean  time  occupied  every 
available  inch  of  space  on  the  steps  of  the  lower  market, 
in  the  windows  and  balconies  of  buildings  facing  the 
square,  on  the  market- wagons  standing  in  the  street, 
and  every  place  which  commanded  a  view  of  the  lower 


NEARING    THE  END.  369 

door  of  the  hall.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  number  of 
colored  persons  in  the  crowd  was  unusual,  and  plainly 
indicated  the  affection  which  the  negroes  felt  for  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  and  their  respect  for  his  memory.  After 
a  considerable  time,  during  which  the  crowd  waited 
with  no  sign  of  breaking  up,  the  casket  was  brought 
from  the  hall,  and  placed  in  the  hearse  ;  a  guard  of  three 
from  each  of  the  military  companies  taking  their  places 
on  each  side,  with  arms  reversed.  The  procession  then 
formed,  with  Company  M  (Commander  C.  F.  A.  Fran- 
cis) at  the  head,  the  Shaw  Veteran  Association,  com- 
manded by  Major  James  B.  Watkins,  following,  and 
immediately  preceding  the  hearse,  behind  which  came 
perhaps  a  dozen  carriages,  containing  intimate  friends. 
A  vast  crowd  lining  the  streets,  and  following  in  a  long 
procession  behind  the  hearse,  constituted  the  mourners. 
The  line  of  march  was  through  Merchants'  Row  to 
State  Street,  up  State  to  Washington,  Washington  to 
School,  School  to  Tremont,  and  so  to  the  Old  Granary 
Burying-ground,  where,  in  the  family-lot,  hallowed  to 
him  by  the  ashes  of  his  father  and  mother,  Wendell 
Phillips  was  laid  to  rest.  No  words  were  spoken  at  the 
grave ;  and  in  a  few  moments  the  vast  crowd  had  dis- 
persed, having  paid  by  its  presence  an  honest  tribute  of 
respect  to  the  memory  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER. 

Origin  of  the  "Radical  Club."  — Phillips' s  Views  on  Religion.  — On 
the  Christian  Name.  —  On  Heart  in  Religion.  —  Economic  Laws.  — 
Phillips  on  the  Boston  of  To-day.  — Phillips' s  Opinion  of  Jonathan 
Edwards. 

"Christianity  is  a  great  moral  power,  the  determining-force  of  our  present  civil 
ization,  as  of  past  steps  in  the  same  direction." 

"Uubehef  has  written  books,  but  it  never  lifted  a  million  men  into  a  united 
struggle.  The  power  that  urged  the  world  forward  came  from  Christianity." 

TN  the  spring  of  1867  the  Boston  "Radical  Club" 
**-  had  its  origin  in  the  growing  desire  of  certain  min- 
isters and  laymen  for  larger  liberty  of  faith,  fellowship, 
and  communion.  In  this  respect,  it  very  closely  resem- 
bled the  Transcendentalist  movement  of  an  earlier  date. 
It  was  designed  to  meet  a  demand  for  the  freest  inves- 
tigation of  all  forms  of  religious  thought  and  inquiry, 
and  was  composed  of  representatives  of  all  denomina- 
tions. At  the  first  meeting  of  the  club,  thirty  persons 
were  present:  at  the  closing  sessions,  in  1880,  nearly 
two  hundred  were  in  regular  attendance. 

The  meetings  were  held  at  No.  13  Chestnut  Street; 
this  being  the  residence  of  the  Rev.  John  T.  Sargent, 
whose  childlike  manner,  earnest  mood,  and  kindly  heart, 

370 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  371 

endeared  him  to  all,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor.  In  1880 
Mrs.  John  T.  Sargent  published  her  "  Sketches  and 
Reminiscences  of  the  Radical  Club,"  made  up  largely 
from  notes  and  reports  made  of  the  meetings.  What- 
ever is  of  worth  and  interest  in  the  present  chapter  is 
culled  mainly  from  this  exceedingly  pleasant  and  read- 
able volume. 

In  May,  1867,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  read,  at  the 
club,  his  essay  on  "Religion."  It  was  followed  by  a 
discussion,  in  which  Mr.  Sargent,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  Col.  Higginson,  and  others  joined.  We  quote 
from  Mr.  Phillips's  remarks :  — 

"  He  thought  they  ought  not  to  fight  windmills :  they 
did  sometimes  fight  shadows.  He  had  never  met  a 
man  of  the  old  faith,  —  one  worthy  to  be  taken  as 
a  type  of  any  thing,  —  who  denied  that  the  religious 
sentiment  had  found  meet  and  valuable  and  admirable 
expression  in  the  mythologies ;  and  he  thought  that 
three-quarters  of  all  the  investigations  which  had  been 
made  into  Oriental  religions,  translations  of  their  books, 
inquiries  into  their  history,  and  analyses  of  their  faiths, 
had  been  made  by  so-called  orthodox  men.  Yale  Col- 
lege was  as  learned  in  all  that  matter  as  Harvard.  He 
did  not  think,  therefore,  they  could  claim  that  the 
truth,  as  it  appeared  in  those  books  and  in  those  reli- 
gions, had  not  been  recognized  by  orthodox  men.  The 
point  where  they  separated  was  not  there,  by  any  means. 
Of  course,  the  old  religions  and  mythologies  grew  out 


372        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

of  an  inspired  religious  consciousness,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent. He  never  knew  a  man  who  denied  it.  Every 
intelligent  man  that  he  ever  met,  of  any  sect,  acknowl- 
edged the  contributions  to  the  literature  of  the  West 
that  had  been  made  by  many  of  the  older  faiths :  they 
had  not  neglected,  they  had  not  depreciated,  that  de- 
velopment. On  all  this  we  agree.  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  astronomical  speculation  in  the  world,  yet  that 
does  not  m  interfere  with  the  fact  that  there  is  a  true 
astronomical  method.  Because  a  great  many  scholars 
had  speculated  about  the  stars,  did  that  show  that 
Copernicus  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton  are  not  upon  the 
right  track  ?  The  question  was,  4  Is  there  any  indica- 
tion anywhere  that  we  have  touched,  even  slightly,  on 
absolute  truth  in  any  of  the  mythologies  ? '  When  it 
was  claimed  that  some  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
could  be  found  in  ^Eschylus  and  Sophocles  and  Epicte- 
tus,  he  admitted  it ;  but,  when  any  man  said  that  the 
New  Testament  could  be  found  in  Confucius  and 
Buddha,  he  stopped,  and  demanded  the  proof.  He  did 
not  know  that  any  Jew  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
had  said,  4Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that  others 
should  do  to  you ; '  but  he  knew  that  the  best  scholar- 
ship of  Europe  had  scrutinized  every  line  of  the  record 
in  the  most  exhaustive  manner,  until  we  know,  if  we 
know  any  thing,  that,  three  hundred  years  after  his 
death,  he  was  supposed  to  have  said  it.  So  far  they 
were  on  solid  ground.  It  was  said  that  Confucius,  five 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  373 

hundred  years  before  Christ,  said,  'Do  not  do  unto 
another  as  you  would  not  have  another  do  to  you.' 
There  was  a  remarkable  similarity  in  the  sentences, 
and  very  little  probability  that  a  Jew,  in  that  narrow 
valley,  ever  heard  of  a  Chinese.  How  did  they  know 
Confucius  said  it  ?  All  they  knew  about  the  Chinese 
was  not  older  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  If 
they  could  prove  to  him,  that,  three  hundred  years  after 
the  death  of  Confucius,  he  was  supposed  to  have  uttered 
those  words,  he  would  believe  it,  but  not  now ;  and  he 
did  not  give  any  more  weight  to  the  legends  about 
Buddha.  No  story,  forty  years  old,  could  be  relied 
upon  without  scrutiny. 

"But  suppose  it  was  admitted  that  Confucius  and 
Buddha  did  say  just  what  Christ  did?  Steam  and 
water  were  the  same  elements :  but  water  would  not 
move  a  locomotive ;  steam  would.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  might  be  paralleled  in  Sophocles;  they  might 
find  a  great  deal  in  Confucius :  but  one  was  water,  the 
other  steam ;  one  had  moved  the  world,  the  other  had 
not.  The  proof  that  -  there  was  something  unusual 
there,  was  seen  in  the  results.  India  had  all  the  intel- 
lectual brilliancy  that  Greece  had ;  she  touched  all  the 
problems,  exhausted  all  the  intellectual  debate,  thou- 
sands of  years  ago ;  and  there  she  lies  to-day.  On  the 
other  hand,  here  was  Europe.  She  had  made  marvel- 
lous progress ;  and,  with  the  single  exception  of  race, 
there  was  no  element  mixed  in  the  European  caldron 


374        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

to  distinguish  it  from  the  Asiatic.  Unless  they  were 
going  to  lay  on  this  distinction  of  race  the  whole  differ- 
ence between  European  and  Asiatic  development,  they 
had  nothing  but  Christianity  to  account  for  it.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  it  was  wiser  to  claim  for  Chris- 
tianity the  largest  share  in  the  merit  of  European 
civilization. 

"Everybody  knew  that  the  Chinese  had  hospitals 
before  Christ,  if  we  are  to  trust  history ;  everybody 
knew  all  about  their  progress  in  civilization ;  but  they 
make  no  progress  to-day.  The  bee  could  make  an 
eight-sided  cell  better  than  Brunei  could  make  it,  but 
the  bee  can  make  nothing  else.  The  Chinese  had  not 
advanced  for  a  thousand  years.  They  had  every  spring- 
board and  fulcrum  and  motive-power  to  go  ahead,  and 
had  not.  Europe  had  constantly  gone  ahead.  We  had 
saved  all  we  had  got,  and  gained  more.  We  had  taken 
the  classic  and  the  Roman  civilization,  —  taken  their 
law,  their  ethics,  their  religious  ideas,  their  idea  of 
popular  rights,  —  and  we  had  carried  them  on.  Europe 
was  the  hand  and  brain  of  the  world  to-day ;  the  pio- 
neer, the  constructor,  the  administrator,  of  the  world 
to-day  ;  and  there  was  nothing  underlying  her  to  make 
her  so,  except  race  and  Christianity.  Other  portions 
of  the  world  had  had  the  same  intellect.  Tocqueville 
had  told  us,  in  his  report  to  the  French  Institute,  that 
there  was  no  theory  or  dream  of  social  science  ever 
debated  in  Europe,  that  could  not  be  found  in  the 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  375 

Hindoo  discussions.  The  difference  was  not  caused 
by  a  lack  of  intellect.  Here  was  a  fact  to  be  explained, 
and  it  could  not  be  brushed  away  by  saying  this  man 
and  the  other  made  a  very  near  approach.  No  doubt 
that  was  so :  nobody  ever  denied  it.  God  never  left 
any  race,  nor  any  man,  nor  any  time,  without  himself ; 
and  these  twilights,  and  approaches  to  noon,  were  seen 
everywhere  in  history.  But  they  had  got,  at  last,  the 
Copernican  theory;  and  no  fact  appeared  that  it  did 
not  explain.  They  had  got,  at  last,  the  true  chemical 
analysis ;  and  that  went  down,  and  weighed  the  atoms. 
That  explained  all  new  combinations  and  all  new  dis- 
coveries. The  reason  why  he  believed  in  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  was,  that  he  gave  the  key  to  every  fact,  dis- 
covered no  matter  where.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  could 
tell  a  great  many  beautiful  dreams  about  astronomy, 
but  they  did  not  explain  the  facts.  Christianity  had 
faced  the  facts,  and  explained  them.  He  claimed,  there- 
fore, that  there  was  something  essentially  different  in 
it  from  the  religious  experience  of  other  races." 

At  another  meeting,  an  essay  on  "The  Christian 
Name  "  was  read  by  William  H.  Channing.  It  called 
forth  the  following  statements  from  Mr.  Phillips :  — 

"  4  Christianity  [said  he]  is  a  great  moral  power,  the 
determining-force  of  our  present  civilization,  as  of  past 
steps  in  the  same  direction.  Jesus  is  the  great  religious 
genius  who  has  given  its  peculiar  type  to  the  modern 
world.  Speculations  as  to  the  why  and  the  how  may 


876        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

differ,  but  we  see  the  fact.  We  cannot  rub  out  history. 
Europe  shows  a  type  of  human  character  not  paralleled 
anywhere  else.  The  intellect  of  Greece  centred  around 
power  and  beauty ;  that  of  Rome  around  legal  justice. 
The  civilization  of  modern  Europe  was  inspired  by  a 
great  moral  purpose.  Imperfect  as  it*  was,  and  limited 
in  many  ways,  the  religious  element  there  had  steadily 
carried  those  nations  forward.  The  battle  for  human 
rights  was  finally  fought  on  a  Christian  plane.  Unbe- 
lief has  written  books,  but  it  never  lifted  a  million  men 
into  a  united  struggle.  The  power  that  urged  the 
world  forward  came  from  Christianity.  Mr.  Channing 
has  explained  to  us  its  origin.  I  look  at  its  results,  and 
they  lead  to  the  same  conclusion.  He  claims  to  be 
Christian.  So  do  I.  The  best  part  of  the  life  of 
Europe  may  be  traced  to  Christianity. 

" '  The  religious  literature  of  Asia  has  been  compared 
with  the  Christian  Scriptures.  The  comparison  is  not 
just.  That  literature  has  many  merits,  and  contains 
scattered  sayings  and  precepts  of  great  excellence ;  but 
there  are  heaps  of  chaff  in  that,  and  in  the  writings  of 
the  early  Christian  Fathers ;  none  in  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles.  Of  the  mediaeval  writings,  one-half  was  use- 
less. Of  the  boasted  works  of  Confucius,  seven-tenths 
must  be  winnowed  out,  to  find  what  the  average  reason 
of  mankind  would  respect.'  v 

At  one  of  the  meetings,  "  Heart  in  Religion "  was 
the  subject  of  an  essay  by  the  Rev.  John  Weiss. 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  377 

When  it  came  to  the  discussion,  Mr.  Phillips  main- 
tained that  the  character  of  Jesus  was  no  mystery. 

" c  You  need  not  analyze  a  lemon,  to  find  out  whether 
it  is  sour.  You  speculate  as  to  whether  Jesus  was  a 
masculine  character.  Look  at  the  men  who  have 
learned  of  him  most  closely,  —  at  Paul  and  Luther 
and  Wesley.  Were  they  effeminate?  yet  the  disciple 
is  but  a  faint  reflection  of  his  Master.  The  character 
from  which  came  the  force  which  has  been  doing  battle 
ever  since  with  wrong  and  falsehood  and  error  was 
nothing  less  than  masculine ;  but  sentiment  is  the 
toughest  thing  in  the  world,  —  nothing-  else  is  iron. 
And,  in  spite  of  friend  Wasson,  Jesus  was  right  in 
pitying  the  poor  in  pocket,  the  burden-bearers,  the 
takers  of  other  men's  wages.  Compulsory  labor  is  a 
curse  —  always  has  been.' ' 

"  Economic  Laws  "  was  a  theme  discussed  at  one  of 
the  sessions  by  the  Hon.  David  A.  Wells.  It  gave  rise 
to  a  very  earnest  debate,  which  is  here  given  as  reported 
at  the  time :  — 

"  Next  was  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips ;  and,  before  he 
ceased,  the  clash  of  opposing  doctrines  and  the  earnest- 
ness of  positive  natures  made  the  discussion  singularly 
entertaining.  Mr.  Phillips  stated,  first,  his  disbelief  in 
the  free-trade  doctrine,  though  he  held  that  creed  fifteen 
years  ago.  He  had  been  misled  by  the  theoretical  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  free  trade,  but  had  been  set  right  by 
hearing  the  facts  as  stated  by  Mr.  Henry  Gary,  the 


378        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

patriarch  of  political  economy,  to  whose  judgment 
the  world  listens.  He  had  heard  Mr.  Gary  say,  '  I  had 
just  finished  a  crushing  reply  to  the  New-England  tariff 
men,  —  one  that  I  thought  demolished  their  whole 
structure  of  argument.  I  went  to  bed  delighted  with 
my  success  in  stating  my  case.  Somehow  I  could  not 
help  seeing,  that,  though  the  logic  seemed  perfect,  it  did 
not  cover  the  facts.  On  paper  it  was  all  right :  out  in 
the  world  the  facts  were  the  other  way.  I  lay  awake 
all  night,  chewing  on  the  contradiction,  and  arose  the 
next  morning  a  tariff  man.'  Any  one  who  listened 
from  Gary's  lips  to  the  stern  facts  which  converted  him 
in  that  night  of  anxious,  honest  thought,  would  never 
again  be  duped  by  free  trade. 

"Nations  are  large  enough,  Mr.  Phillips  thinks,  to 
be  considered  separately  from  each  other.  Internal 
industry  should  be  diversified.  Under  free-trade  rule, 
our  country  would  be  wholly  agricultural.  Other  ele- 
ments must  be  considered  besides  the  mere  question  of 
wealth.  Should  we  lose  our  diversified  occupations, 
we  should  suffer  a  great  loss ;  though  there  might  be  a 
pecuniary  gain.  Nations  might  gain  the  whole  world, 
—  that  is,  half  the  material  wealth  of  the  world,  —  and 
yet  lose  their  own  souls,  and  most  of  their  bodies  too. 
Theories  are  pleasing  things,  and  seem  to  get  rid  of  all 
difficulties  so  very  easily.  One  must  begin  with  abstract 
principles,  and  study  them.  But  wisdom  consists  in 
perceiving  when  human  nature  and  this  perverse  world 


PHILLIPS  AS  A   PHILOSOPHEE.  379 

necessitate  making  exceptions  to  abstract  truths.  Any 
boy  can  see  an  abstract  principle.  Only  threescore 
years  and  ten  can  discern  precisely  when  and  where  it 
is  well,  necessary,  and  right  to  make  an  exception  to 
it.  That  faculty  is  wisdom  :  all  the  rest  is  playing 
with  counters.  And  this  explains  how  the  influx  into 
politics  of  a  shoal  of  college-boys,  slenderly  furnished 
with  Greek  and  Latin,  but  steeped  in  marvellous  and 
delightful  ignorance  of  life  and  public  affairs,  is  wreck- 
ing the  Republican  party. 

"  National  lines  —  artificial  lines  —  trip  up  fine  theo- 
ries sadly,  If  all  the  world  were  under  one  law,  and 
every  man  raised  to  the  level  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  free  trade  would  be  so  easy  and  so  charming  J 
But  while  nations  study  only  how  to  cripple  their 
enemies,  that  is,  their  neighbors,  and  while  each  trader 
strives  to  cheat  his  customer,  and  strangle  the  firm  on 
the  other  side  of  the  street,  we  must  not  expect  the 
millennium. 

"From  this  point,  Mr.  Phillips  proceeded  to  state 
how  he  would  get  protection  without  the  arbitrary 
laws  which  Mr.  Wells  denounced,  and  unfolded  his 
well-known  views  upon  paper  currency,  by  which 
money  enough  for  business  can  be  borrowed  for  two  or 
three  per  cent.  Mr.  Wells  asked  him  how  it  is  that 
interest  here  is  now  seven  per  cent ;  and  Mr.  Phillips 
promised  to  answer  him  a  little  farther  on,  and  ex- 
plained his  theory  of  using  the  credit  of  the  govern- 
ment as  the  basis  of  the  currency. 


380        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

" '  The  next  presidential  election  [said  Mr.  Phillips] 
will  turn,  to  a  great  extent,  on  the  currency  question. 
If  the  South  can  be  broken  into  natural  divisions,  and 
brought  to  behave  decently,  the  currency  will  be  the 
only  great  question.  The  next  step  of  the  Democracy 
will  be,  to  establish  the  greenback  system.' 

"  'It  will  be  worthy  of  it'  [the  Democracy],  keenly 
interrupted  Mr.  Wasson ;  and  his  sally  was  received 
with  laughter  and  applause  by  the  unsympathizers 

" '  Yes,'  said  Mr.  Phillips,  '  it  will  be  the  first  work 
needed  by  a  true  Democratic  party.  For  this  greenback 
question  only  means  whether  we  shall  trust  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  —  that  all  men  are  equal  in 
money  matters,  as  in  every  thing  else.  Hitherto  we 
have  been  Tories  in  money  questions,  and  trusted  the 
people  only  in  other  matters.  July  4, 1776,  said,  "  The 
sober  second  thought  of  the  people  is  the  safest  and 
best  guide  in  all  civil  affairs,  —  personal  rights,  prop- 
erty, marriage,  crimes,  and  all ;  and  we  can  devise  ma- 
chinery which  will  secure  that  sober  second  thought." 

"  4  We  have  been  living  successfully  and  prosperously 
for  a  hundred  years  on  that  plan  and  platform,  with 
one  exception,  —  money  matters.  In  those,  capitalists, 
bank  directors,  and  a  select  class,  have  been  thought  to 
be  the  only  safe  guides.  The  people  now  claim  that 
they  can  and  will  decide  these  as  wisely  and  honestly 
as  they  do  all  other  matters.  This  is  the  last  fight 
between  wealth  and  the  people,  —  not  between  noble 


PHILLIPS  AS  A   PHILOSOPHER.  381 

and  serf,  but  between  money-bags  and  the  workingmen ; 
between  the  men  who  create  wealth,  and  those  who 
steal  a  living  by  the  hocus-pocus  of  banking  and  the 
nonsense  of  coin.  The  people  will  now  carry  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  into  Wall  Street,  where  it 
has  never  yet  penetrated;  and  we  shall  have  a  more 
honest  finance  than  the  world  has  yet  seen.' 

"  Mr.  Wells  retorted,  4  We  are  the  most  dishonest 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe.' 

"'No,'  said  Mr.  Phillips,  'not  the  most  dishonest 
nation.  Perhaps  ours  has  been  of  late  as  dishonest  an 
administration  as  the  world  often  sees,  —  not  the  fault 
of  the  masses,  but  of  the  capitalists.  Three  times 
within  a  dozen  years,  capitalists,  with  their  knives  on 
the  throat  of  the  government,  have  compelled  it  to 
cheat  its  largest  creditor,  the  people,  whose  claim, 
Burke  said,  was  the  most  sacred.  First,  the  pledge 
that  greenbacks  should  be  exchangeable  with  bonds 
was  broken.  Secondly,  debts  originally  payable  in 
paper,  as  Sherman  confessed  in  the  Senate,  were  made 
payable  in  coin.  Thirdly,  silver  was  demonetized,  and 
gold  made  the  only  tender.  A  thousand  million  dol- 
lars were  thus  stolen  from  the  people.  These  are  the 
crimes  of  capital :  the  people  are  honest  enough  if  left 
to  themselves.' 

M  To  one  who  doubted  this  popular  virtue,  Mr. 
Phillips  replied,  'Never  expect  heaven  in  Boston.  I 
never  said  that  a  democracy  was  a  good  government. 


382       LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

A  thing  may  be  the  best  we  can  get,  and  yet  not  be 
good.  Democracy  is  not  a  good  government,  but  it  is 
the  best  we  can  get  while  we  have  only  this  poor, 
rotten  human  nature  to  work  with.  Governments 
created  by  the  people  have  always  been  more  honest 
and  less  corrupt  than  those  originating  with  the  aris- 
tocracy, and  revolutions  made  by  the  people  have 
generally  been  more  merciful  and  less  bloody  than  the 
victories  of  the  upper  classes.  No  student  of  European 
history  can  fail  to  see  this/ 

"  Mr.  Phillips's  enthusiastic  advocacy  of  his  scheme 
of  abolishing  all  coin,  and  issuing  two  thousand  million 
dollars  (an  amount  equal  to  the  national  debt),  based 
on  the  thirty  thousand  millions  of  property  of  the 
country,  so  that  interest  should  never  be  more  than 
five  per  cent,  was  welcomed  with  much  good-natured 
laughter,  which  betrayed  no  sign  of  a  new  convert  to 
greenbackism. 

"Mr.  Wells  replied  to  the  so-called  facts  of  Henry 
Gary,  that  he  had  once  looked  upon  Mr.  Gary  as  his 
Gamaliel,  had  been  very  intimate  with  him,  and  was 
brought  up  as  a  protectionist ;  but  he  found  Mr.  Gary's 
facts  were  no  facts,  and  he  became  a  free-trader  per- 
force. He  has  repeatedly  challenged  Mr.  Gary  to 
public  discussion,  and  has  received  only  abuse  in  reply. 
More  sparks  were  struck  from  each  side :  and  Mr.  Wells 
declared  he  hoped  the  question  would  go  into  the  next 
presidential  campaign,  as  Mr.  Phillips  said  it  would; 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  383 

and  he  wished  that  they  two  could  meet  in  public  dis- 
cussion, and  see  which  was  right.  He  would  be  glad 
to  meet  Mr.  Phillips  on  the  platform. 

"  So  the  warfare  of  words  raged  bravely  and  profita- 
bly, if  public  discussion  for  popular  enlightenment 
shall  be  the  outcome.  A  few  other  gentlemen  spoke 
briefly ;  and  the  company  dispersed,  after  a  sitting  of 
more  than  two  and  a  half  hours." 

In  1873  there  was  a  club-reception  given  to  Mr. 
Emerson.  Among  those  who  assembled  on  the  last 
day  of  the  year,  to  show  their  respect  for  the  "  Sage  of 
Concord,"  were  John  G.  Whittier,  Henry  W.  Long- 
fellow, Dr.  Hedge,  Mr.  Phillips,  Henry  Wilson,  and 
Henry  James.  A  question  whether  the  Boston  of  to- 
day would  always  act  with  the  same  spirit  as  it  did  a 
century  ago,  drew  out  various  opinions.  Mr.  Phillips 
opened  the  discussion  by  saying,  — 

" '  I  believe  the  pictures  of  that  Boston,  a  hundred 
years  ago,  are  very  highly  colored.  That  the  word 
"  caucus  "  has  been  even  guessed  to  have  taken  its  ori- 
gin from  the  Calkers,  betrays  the  popular  notion  and 
estimate  of  the  rising  Rebellion.  John  Hancock's  scar- 
let coat  becomes  historic  as  being  the  only  one  which 
covered  a  rebel.  That  "brace  of  Adamses,"  whom 
Hutchinson  has  immortalized,  were  then  men  of  no 
repute,  vulgar  fanatics,  heading  a  crowd  of  working- 
men,  scoffed  at,  and  scorned,  by  the  respectables  of  the 
day.  The  marvel  is,  that  the  middle,  well-to-do,  and 


384       LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

commercial  classes  headed  a  rebellion  which  had  no 
religion  in  it.  That  is  explained  by  the  fact,  that 
every  successful  merchant  in  Boston  was  obliged  to  be 
a  smuggler.  England  crippled  our  trade  to  save  her 
own,  as  she  has  been  doing  with  Ireland  for  the  last 
century.  So  the  traders,  angered  by  self-interest,  cal- 
culated it  would  pay  to  join  the  mob,  and  rise.  But 
Toryism  had  the  fashion,  the  old  wealth,  and  the  pres- 
tige, as  it  has  always  had. 

" '  As  to  our  day  rising  as  high  even  as  that,  I  doubt. 
Not  much  if  a  reform-city  is  one  which  puts  a  rope 
round  Garrison  to  hang  him,  which  even  yet  hates 
Sumner ;  one  whose  Unitarian  pulpit  deserted  and 
betrayed  Pierpont  for  his  temperance  fidelity,  and 
where  there  never  has  been,  even  to  this  day,  a  fash- 
ionable Orthodox  church  opened  for  an  abolition  meet- 
ing. Would  any  young  enthusiast,  on  fire  with  a  new 
reform  idea,  be  crazy  enough  to  go  to  State  Street, 
Beacon  Street,  the  Old  South,  or  Harvard  College  for 
countenance  ?  If  so,  he  must  be  very  young,  and  will 
soon  learn  better.  The  young  patriots,  who,  when 
Sumter  called,  leaped  to  arms,  ten  years  ago,  were 
exceptions,  not  average  specimens,  by  any  means.'  " 

In  the  spring  of  1880  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  read 
his  essay  on  "  Jonathan  Edwards."  The  remarks  upon 
it  of  Mr.  Phillips  must  close  this  chapter. 

"  '  The  picture  drawn  by  Dr.  Holmes,  though  truthful 
and  accurate  so  far  as  it  goes,  cannot  be  full  or  com- 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  385 

plete.  As  a  whole,  it  cannot  be  just  to  Edwards: 
there  must  be  other  sides,  which  would  soften  and 
redeem  it;  other  doctrines,  that  explain  and  fill  out 
the  full  religious  life  and  character,  and  justify  the 
profound  and  loving  respect  our  fathers  had  for  him. 
Else  how  can  we  account  for  the  great  fact  of  New 
England,  which  is  the  outcome  of  his  and  similar 
pulpits  ? 

" '  No  one  doubts  that  a  large  majority  of  the  New- 
England  pulpits,  one  hundred  years  ago,  sympathized 
with,  and  sustained,  Edwards.  These  horrible  doctrines, 
which  Dr.  Holmes  shocked  us  with,  were  not  Eclwards's 
individual  and  singular  views,  but  the  common  faith  of 
New  England.  Now,  religion  and  theological  doctrines 
are  great  factors  in  forming  character.  If  the  pulpit 
of  New  England  taught  only,  or  mainly,  these  hateful, 
narrow,  inhuman,  and  degrading  doctrines,  —  if  such 
was  the  character  of  its  teaching,  —  whence  came  this 

* 

generous,  public-spirited,  energetic,  hopeful,  broad,  hu- 
mane, self-respectful,  independent,  and  free-thoughted 
New  England,  ready  for  every  good  work,  and  willing 
for  every  necessary  sacrifice  ? 

"  '  We  must  have  a  theory  broad  enough  to  cover  all 
the  facts.  It  used  to  be  said,  that  "He  who  makes 
religion  twelve,  and  the  world  thirteen,  is  no  true  New- 
Englander."  His  religion  was  three-quarters  of  a  Yan- 
kee. What  you  gentlemen  here  call  "free  religion" 
and  "  liberal  Christianity  "  is  of  very  recent  growth, 


386        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

and  of  still  very  narrow  influence.  But  character  is  of 
slow  growth.  Any  theory  which  narrows  and  degrades 
the  New-England  pulpit  of  the  eighteenth  century  fails 
to  account  for  the  community  which  grew  up  under  it.' 

"  To  one  who  suggested  as  an  explanation,  that  our 
fathers  never  really  believed  such  doctrines,  Mr.  Phillips 
replied,  '  It  will  hardly  do  to  maintain  that  the  hard- 
headed  and  practical  Yankee,  so  keen  and  ready  wilted 
in  affairs,  so  free  and  bold  in  civil  life,  the  world's  intel- 
lectual pioneer,  did  not  know  or  understand  what  he 
believed,  in  —  to  him  —  the  most  important  matter  of 
all,  his  religion.  Four  generations  passed  over  the 
stage,  and  left  us  this  commonwealth,  their  creation,  — 
sober,  painstaking,  serious,  earnest  men.  We  cannot 
accept  the  theory  which  represents  their  religion  as 
carelessly  taken  up,  loosely  held,  and  only  half  under- 
stood. Great  jurists,  practical  statesmen,  profound 
scholars,  liberal  founders  of  academy,  college,  and  hos- 
pital, boldly  searching  the  world  over  for  means  to 
perfect  institutions  on  which  the  world  now  models 
itself,  —  were  these  minds  crippled  by  absurd  dogmas, 
worldlings  without  faith,  or  hypocrites  afraid  to  avow 
their  real  belief?  True  philosophy  never  accepts  such 
theories  to  explain  history.  It  is  more  natural  and 
philosophical  to  suppose  that  the  sketch  we  have 
listened  to,  admirable  as  it  is,  has  not  given  all  the 
sides  of  the  picture.' 

"Dr.  Bartol  suggested  that  Edwards's  parish  repu- 


PHILLIPS  AS  A  PHILOSOPHER.  387 

diated  him :  after  twenty  years  listening  to  him,  they 
voted  against  him  ten  to  one. 

"Mr.  Phillips  replied,  'That  argument  proves  too 
much.  We  have  just  exhausted  language  in  praising 
the  eminent  Christian  spirit  and  untold  influence  of 
Dr.  W.  E.  Channing.  But  we  all  know,  that,  after 
Channing  had  preached  twenty  years  to  men  who 
idolized  him,  they  mobbed  him  for  his  anti-slavery 
ideas,  and  refused  him  the  use  of  his  own  church  for 
the  funeral  services  of  the  Abolitionist  Follen,  Chan- 
ning's  most  intimate  and  valued  friend.  Channing 
failed  as  thoroughly,  forty  years  ago,  in  teaching  his 
church  justice  and  humanity,  as  Edwards  did,  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  in  bringing  his  hearers  to  relish  the 
idea  of  infant  damnation.  It  will  not  do  for  Unitarians 
in  Boston  to  throw  that  Northampton  vote  in  Edwards's 
face.  Northampton  never  mobbed  Edwards  for  hi,» 
infant  damnation,  as  Boston  did  Channing  for  his  anti* 
slavery,  in  Faneuil  Hall.' " 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EULOGIES   AND   TRIBUTES. 

death  of  Wendell  Phillips  called  forth  many 
tokens  of  respect  and  admiration.  In  nearly 
every  city  and  town  in  the  country,  east,  west,  north, 
and  south,  his  name  was  mentioned,  and  his  life-work 
reconsidered,  from  public  platforms,  from  pulpits,  or 
in  social  and  literary  gatherings.  To  reproduce  in 
these  pages  even  a  tithe  of  what  was  said  or  written, 
would  swell  the  size  of  the  volume  many  fold.  It 
becomes  necessary,  therefore,  to  limit  the  present  chap- 
ter chiefly  to  the  utterances  that  were  publicly  heard 
in  the  city  which  witnessed  the  birth  and  death  of  the 
great  orator. 

"A  meeting  to  commemorate  the  name  of  Wendell  Phillips 
was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  evening  of  Feb.  9.  Mr.  E.  M. 
Chamberlain  was  the  presiding  officer;  and  the  ruling  spirits  of 
labor  reform,  and  other  issues  which  Mr.  Phillips  espoused,  were 
numerous  upon  the  platform.  Representatives  of  the  colored  race 
were  also  conspicuous.  A  lifelike  and  life-size  bust  of  the  dead 
orator  was  upon  the  platform,  with  its  pedestal  twined  about  with 
smilax.  Among  the  people  present  were  Mrs.  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
George  T.  Downing,  Dr.  William  Wells  Brown,  George  H.  Low- 
ther,  John  M.  Devine,  Charles  H.  Litchman,  T.  C.  Brophy,  Gus- 
388 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  389 

tavus  B.  Hutchinson,  James  H.  Roberts,  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney, 
James  !NT.  Buffum,  Samuel  C.  Fay,  the  Kev.  Dr.  Miner,  A.  B.  Cur- 
rier, Professor  Twohey,  James  Tarone,  and  Joshua  Whittemore. 

"DETAILS  OF  THE  MEETING. 

"At  half -past  seven  Mr.  James  Sumner  of  Milton  called  the 
meeting  to  order,  and  introduced  Mr.  George  E.  McNeill,  formerly 
secretary  of  the  Butler  Independent  Republican  State  Committee, 
as  chairman  of  the  meeting.  He  said  that  it  was  proposed  to 
have  Mr.  E.  M.  Chamberlain  as  president ;  but,  at  the  last  moment, 
he  had  been  called  upon.  With  brief  eulogy  he  referred  to  Mr. 
Phillips  as  a  living  protest  against  a  false  Christianity,  against 
the  disfranchisement  of  women,  and  against  the  oppression  of  the 
poor.  He  was  the  voice  of  the  voiceless,  the  friend  of  the  down- 
trodden and  suffering  everywhere.  In  conclusion,  Mr.  McNeill 
presented  Mr.  J.  M.  L.  Babcock  of  Cambridge  as  the  first  speaker. 
In  substance  he  said,  — 

"  I  am  to  speak  of  a  man  in  whose  oareer  there  was  no  error, 
and  in  whose  character  there  was  no  defect.  He  needs  no  eulogy. 
Where  are  the  anointed  lips  that  can  eulogize  the  perfect  man? 
If  we  would  name  a  career  that  would  be  worthily  emulated,  we 
have  only  to  name  Wendell  Phillips.  A  great  orator  was  defend- 
ing one  of  the  foulest  murders  of  the  time,  when  a  young  man, 
unknown  to  fame,  flung  himself  upon  the  spear-points,  to  *  make 
way  for  liberty.'  That  scene  tells  the  story  of  his  life.  The 
speaker  said  Phillips  was  made  a  prophet  by  his  high,  moral  pur- 
pose, which  kept  his  soul  so  pure  that  he  could  see  where  others 
could  not.  I  am  glad  it  has  been  said  that  Phillips  was  no  politi- 
cian. Politicians  are  a  very  low  order  of  beings.  [Applause.]  He 
is  praised  to-day  for  that  for  which  he  was  censured  thirty  years 
ago.  From  this,  we  may  expect  the  success  of  every  reform  he 
has  espoused.  I  should  hesitate  to  doubt  the  success  of  any  reform 
sanctified  by  the  advocacy  of  his  holy  lips.  Only  ignorance  can 


390       LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

impute  malice  to  Wendell  Phillips.  [Applause.]  We  cannot 
appreciate  the  greatness  of  his  oratory,  because  we  have  no  one 
with  whom  to  compare  him  on  either  side  of  the  water.  Phillips 
found  a  Boston  which  said,  « Cursed  be  Canaan ! '  he  left  a  Boston 
ready  to  say,  'Perish  Bibles  and  constitutions  that  send  young, 
trembling  girls  to  the  auction-block!'  [Applause.]  One  thing 
we  can  do :  we  can  erect  on  Boston  Common  a  statue  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  and  so  lead  our  young  men  to  drink  of  the  same  moral 
fountains,  and  remove  from  our  age  the  reproach  of  having  no 
advocate  of  great  reforms. 

"  The  president  announced  James  Sumner  of  Milton,  as  secre- 
tary, and  then  said,  that,  as  Mr.  E.  M.  Chamberlain  had  arrived, 
he  would  act  as  presiding  officer  for  the  remainder  of  the  evening. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  eulogized,  in  measured  periods,  the  many  traits 
of  Mr.  Phillips.  Said  he,  '  Phillips  never  separated  the  question  of 
the  black  man  from  that  of  universal  emancipation.  We  are 
approaching  the  greatest  contest  of  all  the  ages.  The  heroic 
efforts  of  the  race  from  Greece,  America,  and  France  will  give 
place  to  a  conflict  in  which  all  the  civilized  globe  will  unite,  to 
which  all  other  conflicts  will  be  nothing.  Phillips  has  well  upheld 
the  honor  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  a  noble  successor  to  those 
disinterested  patriots  who  have  shed  honor  upon  all  mankind.' 
[Applause.] 

"Mr.  Chamberlain  then  introduced  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe. 
Her  eulogy  was  in  these  words  :  — 

"  *  The  loss  which  has  fallen  upon  us  is  one  which  silence  best 
expresses.  Stricken  hearts,  losing  forever  the  dear  intimacy  of  a 
beloved  friend,  ask  to  make  their  sorrow  so  quiet,  that  no  one  shall 
hear  it.  But  the  swift  issues  of  life  forbid  this  silence.  Another 
change  of  the  glass,  and  we  shall  be,  not  only  silent,  but  voiceless. 
So,  in  the  very  quick  of  our  grief,  we  must  speak,  in  order  to  give 
form  and  expression  to  our  feeling  and  conviction.  I  am  here 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  391 

to-night,  with  my  small  woman's  voice,  to  speak  the  praises  of  this 
great  friend.  I  am  here  as  one  of  the  weak,  to  praise  the  strength 
of  the  helper  and  deliverer.  But  I  am.  here,  too,  in  the  strength 
which  he  helped  me  and  others  to  find.  A  weak  thing,  with  justice 
behind  it,  is  strong.  [Applause.]  A  strong  thing,  with  justice 
opposed  to  it,  is  weak.  [Applause.]  Our  champion  knew  this 
weakness  and  this  strength.  He  has  taught  us  and  the  world  to 
know  it  better  than  we  should  have  known  it  without  him.  The 
aid  which  Mr.  Phillips  gave  to  the  cause  of  woman  was  character- 
ized like  all  his  work,  by  a  great  strength  of  purpose,  and  solidity 
of  moral  conviction.  There  was  nothing  airy,  fanciful,  or  volun- 
tary in  his  advocacy  of  woman  suffrage.  The  solidity  of  Mr 
Phillips's  belief  was  matched  by  the  extension  of  his  views.  Some 
have  spoken  of  him  as  having  shown  a  failure  of  judgment  in  his 
latei  years.  He  was  not  infallible.  But  his  view  of  justice  was 
infallible,  for  it  was  founded  upon  the  truth  of  God  himself. 
[Applause.]  His  belief  was,  that  the  rights  of  the  poorest  and 
meanest  are  as  sacred  as  the  rights  of  the  highest  and  greatest. 
The  despised  slave,  the  wronged  Indian,  the  derided  woman  suf- 
fragists, the  distrusted  Irishman,  —  all  of  these  were  his  clients. 
And  we  can  commit  his  example  to  posterity,  without  fear  or 
remorse,  so  deep  are  the  foundations  of  right,  so  wide  is  the  appli- 
cation of  justice.  Wendell  Phillips  would  have  thrown  open  to 
women  the  doors  of  every  opportunity,  of  every  career.  He  would 
have  had  them  free  as  air  in  the  streets,  which  he  wished  to  see 
pure  enough  for  the  presence  of  angels,  and  which,  we  know, 
would  only  attain  that  purity  when  the  angels  of  humanity  should 
walk  in  them.  But  let  no  one  think  or  say  that  this  heart's  desire 
of  his  involved  the  desertion  of  home  and  the  neglect  of  its  duties. 
His  own  devotion  to  the  woman  who  was  home  to  him  shows  us 
that  he  knew  the  value  of  the  fireside,  and  of  its  dear  and  sacred 
intimacy  At  the  funeral  services,  recently  held  at  the  Hollis- 


392        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OP   WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

street  Church,  it  was  observable  that  those  who  spoke,  spoke  to 
God  in  prayers.  The  gulf  between  our  noblest  examples  and  the 
common  level  of  our  daily  life  sometimes  seems  so  wide,  that  we 
can  only  cross  it  on  the  wings  of  prayer.  The  friends  who  on  that 
day  looked  on  Wendell  Phillips,  and  the  world  around  him,  could 
only  pray  to  God  that  the  truth  which  made  his  life  glorious  might 
enter  more  and  more  into  the  heart  and  life  of  the  community.  I 
will  add  my  voice  to  theirs,  imploring  the  heavenly  powers  that 
the  steadfast  faith  which  Wendell  Phillips  kept  may  more  and 
more  prevail  in  the  doubting  hearts  of  his  countrymen  and  coun- 
trywomen. May  those  who  dare  not  receive  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers,  that  all  human  creatures  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  en- 
dowed by  God  with  inalienable  human  rights,  may  they  learn  from 
the  record  of  his  life  a  deeper  wisdom  and  a  nobler  courage !  and 
may  the  women  of  our  Commonwealth  take  counsel,  not  of  men 
who  have  never  grasped  the  largeness  of  moral  principles,  but  of 
this  great  gentleman,  who  was  free  as  well  as  forcible,  tender  as 
well  as  true,  who  believed  in  the  instant  help  of  God,  and  in  the 
constant  redemption  of  man !  *  [Applause.] 

"Mr.  John  Hutchinson,  of  the  Hutchinson  family  of  singers, 
was  introduced,  to  sing  an  original  song  upon  Mr.  Phillips.  Pref- 
acing his  song  with  the  statement,  that  for  forty  years  his  family, 
as  a  family,  had  been  singing  for  the  same  causes  as  those  for 
which  Mr.  Phillips  had  been  speaking,  he  sang  tender  words, 
beginning,  — 

" '  Close  his  eyes:  his  work  is  done. 
"What  to  him  is  friend  or  foeman  I ' 

The  closing  stanza  was,  — 

" '  Lay  him  low,  lay  him  low, 

Under  the  clover,  or  under  the  snow: 
How  we  loved  him  none,  can  know. 
Lay  him  low.' 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  393 

The  music  written  for  the  words  was  plaintive,  and  fitting  to  the 
hour,  and  proved  highly  pleasing  to  the  audience. 

"  The  Rev.  P.  A.  McKenna,  the  next  speaker,  said  that  Wendell 
Phillips  was  not  only  a  lover  of  his  kind  and  an  advocate  of  the 
rights  of  women,  but  an  ardent  champion  of  the  cause  of  Ireland. 
In  the  great  heroes  of  the  world,  Faneuil  Hall  claimed  her  citizens 
and  her  inspiration.  It  was  in  Faneuil  Hall  that  Phillips  first 
spoke ;  in  Faneuil  Hall  that  he  lifted  up  his  voice  for  Ireland.  He 
stood  alone  among  the  living  in  his  greatness,  and  there  was  none 
to  equal  him  in  the  awful  company  of  the  illustrious  dead.  When 
the  great  question  called  in  Russia  Nihilism,  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many Socialism,  in  Ireland  the  agrarian  question,  in  America  the 
labor-question  [applause],  pressed  for  a  solution,  then  it  was  that 
the  agitator  stepped  to  the  front,  and  pushed  aside  the  politician. 
The  history  of  the  wronged  Irish  race  appealed  to  the  mind  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  The  lesson  of  his  life  was  the  efficacy  of  con- 
stitutional agitation.  This  was  the  chief  lesson  to  Irishmen.  The 
reform  of  the  suffrage,  the  repeal  of  the  corn-laws,  the  disestab- 
lishment of  the  Irish  Church,  were  not  brought  about  by  the 
dagger,  but  by  agitation. 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Miner  was  next  introduced.  '  If  only  those  who 
could  equal  Phillips's  eloquence,'  he  said,  '  were  allowed  to  speak, 
let  all  the  world  keep  silent.  But  if  all  who  had  been  lifted  and 
helped  to  liberty  could  speak,  let  all  the  world  raise  its  voice. 
Calumny  is  said  to  be  the  honor  paid  by  contemporaries.  If  this 
is  true,  how  highly  has  he  been  honored  already !  Did  the  motive 
remain,  the  enemies  of  Phillips  would  calumniate  him,  as  they  did 
in  the  days  of  slavery.  Though  there  were  four  millions  held  in 
slavery,  yet  fifty  millions  in  this  country  are  held  in  the  bonds  of 
the  liquor-traffic.  [Applause.]  He  knew  the  shams  in  Boston  in 
regard  to  enforcing  the  liquor-law.  Mayor,  aldermen,  council,  and 
police  were  doing  all  they  could  to  nullify  the  prohibitory  law. 


394        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

[A  voice,  "  No.'']  The  legislative  committee  would  sit  as  cowardly 
as  craven  dogs  of  war  under  his  scathing  sarcasm.  But  the  world 
moves,  and  there  will  be  no  truce  on  Beacon  Hill  until  the  truth  is 
organized  into  law.  [Long  applause.]  In  the  causes  of  human 
rights, — purity  of  lives,  and  distribution  of  property,  —  there  is 
equality  of  persons.  A  dozen  men  on  Beacon  Hill  hold  Massachu- 
setts in  their  hands.  It  is  for  you  who  have  ballots,  to  teach  those 
men  where  they  belong,  and  teach  them  to  respect  right  and  jus- 
tice. It  is  said  that  he  was  foolish  in  the  schemes  of  his  later  life ; 
but,  when  the  manufacture  and  use  of  liquors  shall  be  prevented, 
then  the  temperance  cause  will  rise  to  honor,  with  the  name  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  Dr.  Miner  then  defended  Mr.  Phillips's  well- 
known  greenback  views.  *  The  capitalist  puts  his  money  into  gov- 
ernment bonds,  payable,  principal  and  interest,  in  gold.  But  the 
poor  soldier  was  set  up,  to  be  shot  through  and  through,  and  driven 
into  splinters,  and  was  paid  fifteen  dollars  a  month,  worth  about 
five  dollars.  He  was  a  soft-money  man.  [Voice,  "That's  true."] 
Yes,  that's  true  in  the  light  of  justice.  But  he  put  the  burden 
where  it  belonged,  —  on  the  whole  people.  Congress  is  as  ignorant 
on  money-matters  as  a  boy  unborn.  [Laughter.]  That  is  not  a 
popular  saying.  I  shall  hear  from  it  to-morrow.'  [Applause.] 
Dr.  Miner  said  he  sympathized  with  these  laborers,  and  laborers 
everywhere,  in  their  struggles  for  equal  distribution  of  property. 
[Applause.]  He  sympathized  with  the  efforts  for  woman's  enfran- 
chisement. He  sympathized  with  the  efforts  to  redeem  Ireland. 
[Applause.] 

"  Dr.  William  Wells  Brown  was  next  introduced.  He  said  that 
he  first  met  Mr.  Phillips  at  an  anti-slavery  convention  in  1812,  and 
from  that  time  down  to  his  death  was  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  him  than  any  colored  man  in  Massachusetts.  On  one  occa- 
sion the  speaker  found  seven  colored  men  waiting  to  ask  him  for 
money  for  some  Southern  work  or  college.  He  gave  to  them  all, 
shutting  none  out. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  395 

"  James  N.  Buffum  was  introduced  as  a  friend  of  Mr.  Phillips, 
and  one  who  had  been  a  part  of  the  troublous  times  contemporary 
with  him.  After  describing  the  '  mobocracy '  troubles  in  Boston, 
when  Garrison  was  placed  in  Leverett-street  jail  to  protect  him  from 
violence,  when  he  took  a  part  in  thwarting  their  endeavors  to  harm 
him,  he  passed  to  the  great  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  where  Mr. 
Phillips  first  appeared  as  the  champion  of  liberty.  He  said,  *  And 
then  it  was  that  Rev.  Dr.  Channing,  that  venerable  old  man,  joined 
with  others  to  call  a  meeting  in  this  hall,  to  protest  against  the 
mobocracy  that  so  ruled  in  the  country.  By  my  side  sat  Wendell 
Phillips :  in  front  there,  Hancock  and  Adams,  and  those  old  heroes 
of  the  Revolution,  were  on  the  wall.  Dr.  Channing  came  forward 
with  his  beautiful,  heavenly  voice,  and  lifted  it  up  in  favor  of 
humanity  against  the  vice  of  the  day ;  and  he  said,  "  Let  my  name 
be  attached  to  it :  let  it  go  across  the  Atlantic,  and  be  heard  wher- 
ever I  am  known,  that  I  have  tried  to  do  all  I  could  to  roll  back 
this  storm  of  mobocracy."  Here  sat  Mr.  Phillips;  and,  when  Dr. 
Channing  had  closed,  James  T.  Austin,  who  was  then  our  State 
attorney,  arose,  and  undertook  to  defend  that  act  of  murder.  He 
said  that  "  it  was  only  in  accordance  with  the  Revolution  :  the  throw- 
ing overboard  of  the  tea  was  against  law,  the  fight  on  Bunker  Hill 
was  nothing  but  a  mob,  and  the  people  outraged  would  always  resist 
it."  He  went  on  to  say,  "  Dr.  Channing  has  come  down  from  a 
holy  place,  the  pulpit,  and  has  mingled  in  the  strifes  of  the  politi- 
cal arena."  I  listened  to  him  throughout,  for  he  was  an  eloquent 
man ;  and,  when  he  closed,  this  young  man  (Mr.  Phillips),  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  one  of  the  handsomest  men  I  ever  saw,  —  his  face 
beaming  with  excitement,  his  eye  like  an  eagle's,  —  took  the  plat- 
form, and  began  in  these  words  :  "  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  lived  to 
see  the  day  when  the  old  heroes  of  the  Revolution  have  been  com- 
pared to  a  mob.  I  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when  those  who  fought 
on  Bunker  Hill  have  been  compared  to  the  murderers  of  Lovejoyl 


396        LIFE  AND  .  TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

1  wonder,"  said  he,  "that  those  painted  lips  on  yonder  wall  had  not 
broken  the  silence  of  fifty  years,  and  burst  forth  to  rebuke  this 
recreant  son  of  America !  I  wonder,  that  in  this  old  Cradle  of 
Liberty,  consecrated  by  the  Adamses  and  Hancocks,  the  floor,  up- 
heaving, had  not  yawned  to  swallow  him  up. "  Those  galleries  were 
crowded :  this  hall  was  nothing  but  a  sea  of  men,  rolling  backward 
and  forward.  And  they  cried  out,  "  Take  it  back,  recreant."  Mr. 
Phillips  stood  with  majesty  and  dignity ;  and,  when  the  howling  of 
the  mob  subsided,  he  said,  "An  abolitionist  takes  nothing  back." 
They  howled  again ;  but  he  went  on  with  such  power,  such  beauty 
of  expression,  that  he  awed  them  into  silence,  and  broke  their 
power  in  this  place.  He  continued,  "  Has  it  come  to  this?  did  God 
intend  this  country  should  be  the  burial-place  of  liberty  ?  did  he 
scoop  out  the  Mississippi  as  her  grave,  and  pile  up  the  Rocky 
Mountains  as  her  monument,  or  pour  forth  the  Niagara  for  her 
requiem  ?  " "  And  so  on,  in  a  rare  address,  combining  his  recollec- 
tion of  the  scenes  with  a  vivid  portrayal  of  them,  Mr.  Buffum  led 
the  audience  on  and  on,  to  a  deeper  interest  in  his  reminiscences." 

On  Thursday  evening,  Feb.  28,  a  memorial  meeting 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Massachusetts  Woman  Suffrage 
Association  was  held  in  the  Meionian,  Boston.  It  was 
a  most  interesting  and  memorable  occasion.  Mrs.  Julia 
Ward  Howe  called  the  meeting  to  order,  and  was  the 
opening  speaker.  She  was  followed  by  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  jun.,  who  read  a  most  beautiful  address,  the 
closing  paragraphs  of  which  are  here  quoted :  — 

"  I  cannot  close  with  more  appropriate  words  than  those  of  Mr. 
Phillips  himself,  as  applicable  to  his  career  as  to  that  of  Francis 
Jackson,  at  whose  funeral  they  were  pronounced:  'The  pitiless 
storm  of  hate  beat  upon  him  for  thirty  years.  Malice  —  personal, 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  397 

political,  religious  —  watched  his  every  act,  dogged  his  every  step; 
and  yet  no  breath  of  suspicion  ever  touched  his  character.  Out  of 
that  ordeal  he  comes,  with  no  smell  of  fire  on  his  garments :  the 
boldest  malice  never  gathered  courage  to  invent  an  accusation. 
0  .  .  No  man  ever  suspected  him  of  any  thing  but  bravery,  of  hold- 
ing opinions  which  all  hated,  and  of  acting  them  out  at  the  risk  of 
property  and  life,  and  the  actual  sacrifice  of  all  common  men  love. 
How  few  have  such  an  epitaph  !  We  who  knew  him,  when  we  read 
of  Hampden  resisting  ship-money,  or  Sidney  going  to  the  block,  feel 
that  we  have  walked  and  lived  with  their  fellow.  .  .  .  His  best 
praise  is  our  following  his  example,  and  each  fearlessly  obeying  his 
own  conscience,  and  doing  with  his  might  whatever  his  hand  finds 
to  do  for  his  fellow-man.  Let  us  so  do  him  honor.  And,  as  the 
great  Englishman  said  of  his  friend,  "  There's  none  to  make  his 
place  good :  let  us  go  to  the  next  best,"  so  of  thee,  dear  comrade  and 
leader  of  many  years,  thy  place  is  sacred  forever  to  thy  memory. 
We  go  to  the  next  best,  till  God  gives  us  to  see  thee  once  again 
face  to  face.' " 

Theodore  D.  Weld,  the  man  who  led  in  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  in  Ohio  in  1834,  paid  a  most  eloquent 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  old  friend.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  Judge  Thomas  Russell,  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney, 
Hon.  Elizur  Wright,  Rev.  Samuel  May,  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone, 
George  W.  Lowther,  and  others.  Every  word  that  was 
said  by  these  speakers  was  well  worthy  of  reproduction 
in  these  pages;  but,  unfortunately,  the  limits  of  our 
space  will  not  permit  even  fragmentary  selections. 

The  colored  citizens  of  Boston  and  vicinity  assembled 
in  Tremont  Temple  on  the  evening  of  the  llth  of  April, 
to  listen  to  a  eulogy  by  Mr.  Archibald  H.  Grimke*  of 


398        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Boston.  No  attempt  at  decoration  of  the  hall  was  made, 
and  nothing  emblematic  of  mourning  was  visible ;  but  a 
life-size  portrait  in  oil  of  Mr.  Phillips,  half-buried  within 
ferns  and  calla  lilies,  stood  immediately  in  front  of  the 
organ.  The  seats  upon  the  platform  were  fully  occupied 
by  ladies  and  gentlemen,  all  more  or  less  identified  with 
the  struggle  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  elevat- 
ing of  the  colored  race.  Hon.  George  L.  Ruffin  intro- 
duced the  orator  of  the  evening  in  the  following  short 
address :  — 

"  No  other  class  of  people  can,  with  greater  propriety,  meet  to 
pay  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Wendell  Phillips  than  the  descend- 
ants and  representatives  of  those  for  whose  freedom  he  labored  so 
long.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  advocated  other  causes, 
and  labored  for  other  reforms ;  but  the  best  years  of  his  life,  the 
period  of  his  early  manhood  and  middle  age,  were  given  wholly  to 
the  cause  of  the  negro.  And  to-day  his  immediate  colored  con- 
stituents have  gathered,  to  say  some  words  of  respect  to  his  memory, 
knowing  at  the  same  time  that  these  words  are  entirely  inadequate 
to  express  the  sense  of  their  loss. 

"  For  intensity  of  devotion  to  the  anti-slavery  cause,  Mr.  Phil- 
lips must  be  given  the  first  place  among  the  leaders  in  that  war- 
fare. Other  great  captains  there  were,  with  as  much  wisdom, 
patience,  and  steadiness ;  but  Mr.  Phillips  was  the  brilliant  and 
dashing  officer,  marvellous  in  skill,  and  with  unquenchable  zeal. 
Yet,  in  the  beginning  of  his  public  life,  Mr.  Phillips  knew  little  or 
nothing  of  slavery  from  personal  observation.  He  had  never  been 
shocked  by  a  sight  of  the  brutalities  of  plantation-life.  His  knowl- 
edge of  the  negro,  and  negro  character,  was  confined  almost  entirely 
to  what  he  had  seen  and  known  of  the  less  than  one  thousand  colored 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  399 

people  then  living  in  Boston,  and  what  he  could  occasionally  gather 
from  an  escaped  slave.  But  he  did  know  the  system  of  slavery 
with  its  attendant  evils  well.  He  knew  the  demoralizing  effects  of 
slavery,  and  its  degrading  influence.  He  knew  that  slavery  was 
wrong,  and  he  abhorred  it.  The  enemies  of  freedom  derisively 
called  the  abolitionists  negro-lovers.  Mr.  Phillips  did  not  love 
the  negro  as  a  negro.  He  loved  justice,  he  hated  injustice.  He 
saw  that  the  negro  was  deprived  -of  his  liberty,  and  was  outraged ; 
he  saw  that  society  and  government  were  combined  against  the 
negro ;  and  he  renounced  society,  rebelled  against  government,  and 
took  his  stand  against  both  to  defend  the  negro.  At  this  time  Mr. 
Phillips  was  well  acquainted  with  the  leading  intelligent  colored 
men  then  in  Boston :  John  T.  Hilton,  Rev.  Thomas  Paul,  Charles 
Lenox  Remond,  and  William  C.  Nell,  the  historian,  were  all  co- 
workers  in  the  abolition  society,  which  held  its  meetings  in  Bel- 
knap-street  Church  (now  Joy-street).  In  this  little  church  Mr. 
Phillips  delivered  some  of  those  inspired  speeches  which  unfortu- 
nately have  never  been  printed,  but  are  so  often  referred  to  latterly. 
Robert  Morris,  Lewis  Hayden,  William  Wells  Brown,  and  other 
colored  men,  were  his  co-workers :  the  relations  between  Mr.  Phil- 
lips and  his  immediate  colored  constituents  were  pleasant  and 
mutually  agreeable ;  they  thoroughly  appreciated  his  sacrifices  for 
them,  and  he  was  well  aware  of  that  fact.  When  danger  threat- 
ened, or  troubles  arose,  as  they  often  did  in  the  fugitive-slave-law 
times,  the  colored  man  always  went  to  Mr.  Phillips  for  advice  and 
assistance. 

"  In  the  eyes  of  many  colored  people,  Mr.  Phillips  was  the  one 
exceptional  white  American  wholly  color  blind,  and  free  from  race- 
prejudice.  Without  saying  this,  it  may  be  said,  that,  if  he  was  not 
the  truest,  he  was  among  the  truest,  to  the  rights  and  interests  of 
colored  people.  In  his  demand  for  equal  rights  for  colored  people, 
there  was  no  qualification,  —  absolutely  none ;  the  demand  covered 


400        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

every  relation  of  life :  and  when  Richard  H.  Dana,  fugitive-slave 
defender  as  he  was,  said,  that  when  he  remembered  what  his  race 
was,  and  what  the  negro  race  was,  in  an  insurrection  his  sympathy 
would  go  writh  his  race,  Mr.  Phillips,  from  an  infinitely  higher 
plane,  replied,  in  such  a  case  '  My  sympathies  would  go  with  the 
fight.'  His  teachings  to  the  colored  people  were  of  inestimable 
value :  it  was  the  higher  education  to  them.  He  taught  them  their 
duty  to  themselves,  he  encouraged  their  aspirations,  false  notions  of 
life  were  unlearned,  he  taught  them  self-reliance  and  manliness. 
He  once  said,  '  A  slave  I  pity,  a  rebellious  slave  I  respect.'  The 
question  has  been  often  asked,  « Which  had  the  stronger  hold  upon 
the  affections  of  the  colored  people,  Mr.  Garrison,. or  Mr.  Phillips?' 
That  question  can  never  be  satisfactorily  answered ;  it  is  beyond  the 
ability  of  any  person  to  sound  the  depths  of  feeling  entertained  by 
the  colored  people  for  both :  but  in  a  general  way  it  may  be  said, 
older  men  gravitated  towards  Mr.  Garrison,  while  younger  men 
were  more  demonstrative  for  Mr.  Phillips.  And  it  may  be  further 
said,  if  this  distinction  is  correct,  that  this  feeling  had  its  origin  in 
the  discussion  between  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Phillips,  on  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  at  the  close  of  the  war,  —  Mr. 
Garrison  contending  that  the  slaves  were  free,  the  work  was  done ; 
and  Mr.  Phillips  insisting  that  the  work  was  not  done,  but  should 
be  continued  until  the  slaves  had  equal  rights. 

"Mr.  Phillips  never  failed  to  give  pecuniary  assistance  to 
worthy  colored  students  who  applied  to  him  for  aid.  He  not 
only  gave  himself,  but  helped  the  applicant  to  get  assistance  else- 
where. 

"  Wide  apart  as  were  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  colored  friends  in 
race  and  social  position,  there  was,  nevertheless,  this  community 
of  feeling  between  them,  —  they  were  both  under  the  ban  of  public 
disfavor.  The  negro  was  despised,  and  Mr.  Phillips  was  the  best- 
hated  man  in  Boston. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  401 

"  In  his  speeches  to  the  colored  people,  he  never  lowered  him- 
self in  style  or  substance  to  the  level  of  their  capacities.  He 
spoke  to  them  as  he  did  to  any  other  public  audience,  but  at  times 
he  was  very  practical.  He  talked  on  the  education  of  children, 
obtaining  homesteads,  and  learning  trades. 

"  The  people  of  Boston  never  appreciated  Mr.  Phillips :  it  seems 
to  have  never  occurred  to  them,  that  they  had  in  him  a  most  valu- 
able citizen,  the  brightest  ornament  to  the  city.  If  they  did 
appreciate  him,  it  was  not  admitted  in  his  lifetime.  Small  and 
unworthy  men  came  to  the  front,  and  played  important  parts,  while 
Mr.  Phillips  lived  unnoticed  in  an  unfashionable  quarter  of  the 
city.  Mr.  Phillips  must  have  had  this  in  mind  when  he  said,  '  I 
know  the  back-stairs  which  lead  to  the  governor's  room.' 

"  The  colored  people  adopted  heartily  the  general  principles  of 
the  abolitionists,  and  they  manifested  their  sympathy  in  various 
well-known  ways.  In  matters  of  detail,  however,  they  chose  their 
own  methods.  The  abolitionists  were  non-resistants.  If  a  fugi- 
tive slave  was  to  be  rescued,  or  a  body-guard  was  to  go  with  Mr. 
Phillips  from  Belknap-street  church  to  his  home,  the  colored  people 
did  not  accept  that  doctrine.  The  abolitionists  did  not  vote.  The 
colored  people  always  voted,  when,  by  so  doing,  they  thought  they 
could  thereby  cripple  the  slave-power;  and  Mr.  Phillips  never 
found  fault  with  them  for  exercising  this  discretion.  The  fact  is, 
that,  in  political  action,  the  negro  has  been  guided  largely  by  that 
instinct,  based  on  the  first  law  of  nature,  —  self-preservation.  He 
always  voted,  and  he  always  voted  right. 

"The  last  time  Mr.  Phillips  was  with  the  colored  people,  so- 
cially, was  at  a  dinner  given  to  him  by  the  Wendell  Phillips  Club, 
six  or  seven  years  ago,  at  their  rooms  in  Cambridge  Street.  Mr. 
Garrison  was  present,  and  the  banquet  lasted  until  a  comparatively 
late  hour  of  the  night.  The  war  was  ended ;  slavery  was  abol- 
ished; the  constitutional  amendments  were  adopted;  the  negro 


402        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

was  free  and  equal  before  the  law.  And  here  were  the  two  veteran 
abolitionists,  covered  with  honor  and  glory,  sitting  at  table  with 
colored  citizens,  to  celebrate  their  victory.  Grander  sight  was 
never  beheld !  Reminiscences  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle  were 
given  with  zest,  names  of  departed  heroes  and  scenes  passed  away 
were  recalled,  and  the  words  of  wisdom  and  hope  which  fell  from 
the  lips  of  Garrison  and  Phillips  that  night  will  never  be  effaced 
from  the  memories  of  those  who  were  present  while  life  lasts.  The 
abolition  movement  was  the  purest  and  highest  movement  that  was 
ever  carried  forward  in  this  country.  It  was  more  than  philan- 
thropy, morality,  or  statesmanship.  It  was  all  these  combined. 
The  abolitionists  sought  to  reach  human  conscience.  They  were 
not  heeded,  and  the  great  sin  of  slavery  was  expiated  in  rivers  of 
blood.  Hail  to  the  abolitionists,  dead  and  living,  men  and  women ! 
Never-dying  honor  is  yours  !  The  freedom  for  which  you  con- 
tended has  triumphed,  and  your  deeds  are  recorded  in  the  brightest 
page  of  your  country's  history.  Illustrious  Phillips,  hail ! 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  present  to  you  a  gentleman,  who, 
from  his  name,  position,  and  ability,  is  the  man  to  deliver  the 
eulogy." 

Mr.  Grimke's  oration  was  worthy  alike  of  the  subject 
and  of  the  speaker.  The  following  extracts  are  here 
given :  — 

"  Freedom  and  slavery  made  great  advances,  from  the  murder 
of  Lovejoy  to  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive-slave  Law.  Calhoun 
had  continued  that  agitation  of  slavery  in  and  out  of  Congress, 
which  looked  to  the  union  of  the  South  for  decisive  action.  Year 
by  year  the  circle  of  his  influence  widened,  and  the  seeds  he  had 
sowed  were  springing  up.  And  year  after  year  the  slave-power 
grew  more  aggressive  and  insolent.  The  great  Nullifier  was  gen- 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  403 

erating  the  electrical  energies  of  the  irrepressible  conflict.  At 
the  end  of  this  period,  the  South  had  but  one  policy  and  passion. 
To  preserve  slavery,  it  trampled,  rough-shod,  upon  the  Constitution, 
and  the  liberties  of  the  North.  Texas  it  had  got.  The  Mexican 
war  it  had  precipitated  upon  the  free  States.  It  had  finally  ex- 
torted from  the  recreant  North  the  infamous  Slave  Bill.  Southern 
arrogance  could  go  no  farther,  and  Northern  servility  could  crawl 
to  no  lower  deep  of  wickedness.  The  slave-power  had  again  over- 
reached itself. 

"  The  anti-slavery  agitation  did  not  remain  where  the  year  '37 
had  left  it.  It  advanced  through  the  North  with  increasing  fervor 
and  numbers.  It  was  arousing  and  uniting  the  North.  A  deter- 
mined purpose  had  formed  in  the  free  States,  to  resist  the  extension 
of  slavery.  Northern  servility  and  selfishness  were  caught  in  the 
conflagration  which  Garrison  had  kindled,  and  Phillips  fed.  They 
were  consuming  in  'the  penal  fire*  of  the  reformation.  And  out 
of  their  ashes  was  rising  the  new  North,  liberty-crowned.  And 
so,  while  the  years  from  '37  to  '50  had  united  the  South,  they  had 
also  aroused  the  manhood  of  the  North.  The  impious  enactment 
of  1850  accelerated  the  collision  of  the  moral  forces  of  the 
Republic. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  the  earnest- 
ness and  daring  which  then  caught  Phillips  up,  and  bore  him  on 
wings  of  flame  to  the  manhood  of  the  North.  He  was  transported 
to  limits  beyond  all  fear,  beyond  all  regard  for  wicked  laws  and 
slave  commissioners,  all  love  of  country,  all  the  known  methods 
and  safeguards  of  civil  society.  He  flung  himself  back  upon  the 
'great  primal  right  of  self -protection '  as  'the  kernel  of  possible 
safety '  for  the  fugitive.  He  shrank  from  no  act,  '  however  des- 
perate,' to  rescue  '  a  human  being  hunted  by  twenty  millions  of 
slave-catchers.'  At  moments  of  supreme  passion  he  trampled 
upon  the  sentiments  of  his  best  friends.  With  what  vehemence 


404        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

he  stamped  upon  the  non-resistant  doctrines  of  Mr.  Garrison !  <  If 
your  hearts  answered  instead  of  your  nerves,'  he  exclaimed  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  rendition  of  Sims,  'you  would  rise  up,  every 
one  of  you  abolitionists,  ready  to  sacrifice  every  thing,  rather  than 
a  man  should  go  back  to  slavery ! '  Friends  shook  their  heads,  and 
said  his  doctrine  was  bloody.  Enemies  accused  him  of  spreading 
anarchical  principles.  But  neither  enemies  nor  friends  could 
frighten  or  dissuade  him.  The  air  which  he  breathed  carried  into 
his  blood  the  monstrous  dishonor  done  the  North,  and  the  brutal 
wrong  done  the  black  man.  He  burst  through  all  the  barriers  of 
civil  society,  and  stood  face  to  face  with  the  slave-hounds  of  the 
Constitution.  He  bade  the  fugitive  turn,  and  smite  his  pursuer. 
He  declared  that  the  shooting  of  a  Morton,  or  a  Curtis,  '  on  the 
Commissioners'  Bench,  by  the  hand  of  him  they  sought  to  sacri- 
fice, would  have  a  wholesome  effect.'  In  every  speech  he  made 
now,  there  was  a  possible  John  Brown. 

"From  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive-slave  Law,  Garrison  was 
thrown  into  the  background  by  his  great  coadjutor.  The  anti- 
slavery  agitation  had  passed  from  the  first  to  the  second  stage  of 
its  growth.  Over  the  first,  the  pure  spirit  and  uncompromising 
heart  of  Garrison  had  presided.  It  was  the  period  of  beginning, 
incubation,  preparation.  It  was  the  stage  of  investigation,  dis- 
cussion, revelation.  It  was  the  seed-time  of  the  struggle.  The 
peace-principles  of  Garrison  were  the  hovering  wings  of  the  move- 
ment. Under  their  shelter  and  mother-love,  truth  and  justice 
stirred  at  the  centre  of  a  nation's  life.  They  hatched  apathy  into 
feeling,  feeling  into  knowledge,  knowledge  into  repentance,  repent- 
ance into  conviction.  Within  their  shadow,  malignity  could  not 
reach,  and  public  opinion  was  impotent.  Thus  protected,  the 
moral  forces  of  the  reformation  grew.  This  period  formed,  like 
the  clouds,  amid  the  still  processes  of  nature.  The  sun  drinks  up 
the  rivers :  atmospheric  changes  come  with  the  winds.  The  blue 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  405 

sky  vanishes,  the  tempest  flies  overhead,  the  imprisoned  heat 
speaks,  *  the  live  thunder '  leaps,  and  rain  tumbles  upon  the  thirsty 
fields.  The  period  of  preparation  has  gone.  The  time  of  action 
has  come.  'I  must  decrease,  but  thou  must  increase,'  expresses 
one  of  the  subtle  moods  of  nature.  Childhood  advances,  and 
then  succeeds  manhood  to  all  that  it  brings.  To-day  stands  tiptoe 
on  yesterday,  and  reaches  up  to  where  to-morrow  begins.  The 
years  from  '29  to  '50  toiled,  and  laid  up,  to  furnish  Phillips  his 
vantage-ground. 

"  We  make  no  comparison.  None  can  be  made  between  Garri- 
son and  Phillips.  We  love  them  both  with  a  love  which  only 
those  who  have  received  much  can  give.  But,  if  we  wished  to 
describe  Mr.  Garrison's  relations  to  the  struggle,  we  should  perhaps 
say  that  he  sustained  to  it  the  relations  of  motherhood,  and  Mr. 
Phillips  those  of  fatherhood.  They  are  the  common  parents, 
under  God,  of  our  deliverance.  For,  without  both,  our  freedom 
would  never  have  been  born. 

"  But  when  the  year  1850  came,  and  the  slave-power  hung  with 
its  black  bill  over  the  free  States,  non-resistance  had  no  longer 
any  place  in  the  conflict.  The  time  for  argument  had  passed :  the 
time  for  arms  had  arrived.  On  the  first  wave  of  this  momentous 
change,  Wendell  Phillips  mounted  to  leadership.  His  speeches 
were  the  first  billows,  breaking  in  prophetic  fury,  against  the 
South.  They  were  the  first  blast  of  the.  tempest,  the  first  shock 
on  the  utmost  verge  of  civil  war.  Forcible  resistance  of  the  black 
bill  was  now  obedience  to  God.  It  was  the  dictate  of  the  highest 
justice.  The  passage  of  the  bill  was  the  actual  opening  of  hos- 
tilities between  the  two  sections.  The  Union,  from  that  moment, 
was  in  a  state  of  war.  Of  course,  there  were  not  then  any  of  the 
visible  signs  of  war,  —  no  opposite  armies,  two  belligerent  govern- 
ments, two  hostile  social  systems  in  actual  and  bloody  collision. 
It  was  none  the  less  real,  however.  Such  a  conflict  ends  always 
in  an  appeal  to  force. 


406       LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  The  peaceable  surrender  of  a  fugitive  becomes  now  treason  to 
freedom.  Wendell  Phillips  comprehended  the  gravity  of  the 
situation.  He  refused  to  cry  peace  where  there  was  no  peace. 
He  answered  the  Southern  manifesto  with  the  thunder  of  his  great 
speech,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  rendition  of  Sims.  Right  and 
wrong  has  grappled  at  last  in  mortal  strife.  *  Why  does  the  mayor 
stand  there  arguing  ?  Why  does  he  not  call  for  the  guns  ? '  re- 
vealed in  '35  the  character  of  the  man.  Mr.  Garrison's  non-resist- 
ant doctrines  in  '50  shrank  from  the  consequences  of  meeting 
force  with  force.  But  this  time  Phillips  is  no  longer  a  spectator 
in  the  street.  He  is  in  command,  and  has  called  for  the  guns. 
No  half-way  measure  will  now  do.  No  mere  resort  to  legal  reme- 
dies to  rescue  fugitives  can  save  the  North  from  the  basest  capitu- 
lation. He  saw  clearly,  that  the  danger  of  the  reform  lay  in  the 
stupor  and  indifference  which  repeated  executions  under  the  law 
would  produce.  The  South  was  united  and  highly  organized, 
impelled  by  a  single  purpose,  and  in  possession  of  the  whole 
machinery  of  government.  He  saw  the  North  timid,  irresolute, 
sordid,  drugged  by  WTiigs  and  Democrats,  and  frozen  with  the  fear 
of  disunion,  ready  to  call  the  crime  of  yesterday,  indifferently  bad 
to-day,  and  the  unavoidable  to-morrow.  Peace  was  slavery,  and 
sleep  was  death.  The  only  hope  of  freedom  lay  now  in  the  finger 
that  could  pull  a  trigger.  This  might  beat  back  the  advancing 
apathy,  and  save  the  citadel  of  liberty.  The  fate  of  millions  of 
slaves,  the  destiny  of  a  free  people,  hung  by  a  thread,  which  one 
bad  precedent  might  sever.  It  is  the  glory  of  Phillips,  that  he  saw 
this,  —  saw  the  peril  in  its  imminency  and  all  its  consequences, 
and  smote,  with  undying  eloquence,  the  myrmidons  of  slavery. 
He  was  an  army  in  himself.  His  eloquence,  poured  out  month 
after  month,  and  year  after  year,  became  a  kind  of  immanent 
presence,  an  elemental  influence,  an  omnipresent  curse,  an  incorpo- 
real spirit  of  justice  and  duty  throughout  the  North.  The  very 


EULOGIES  AND    TRIBUTES.  407 

air  of  the  free  States  vibrated  with  the  disembodied  soul  of  his 
mighty  invectives.  Slave-catching  he  has  made  a  crime  the 
blackest  in  the  calendar  of  the  republic.  The  probate  judge  of 
Massachusetts,  who  sat  as  a  commissioner  in  the  case  of  Burns, 
he  annihilated.  His  indictment  of  Judge  Coring  is  a  masterpiece 
worthy  to  be  ranked  with  Burke's  impeachment  of  Warren  Hast- 
ings. He  became  a  terror  to  the  kidnapper.  The  slave-hounds 
bayed  with  bated  breath  at  the  sound  of  bis  magic  voice.  Black 
men  heard  him,  and  learned  to  pull  the  trigger,  and  swing  the 
bludgeon.  White  men  heard,  and  learned  to  sleep  upon  muskets 
shotted  to  the  lip  for  the  man-stealer.  John  Brown  heard  him, 
and,  with  his  brave  little  band,  has  flung  himself  upon  Virginia, 
and  struck  for  the  freedom  of  the  slave.  Harper's  Ferry  has  taken 
its  place  with  Marathon,  Marston  Moor,  and  Lexington ;  and  the 
gallows  on  which  John  Brown  died  has  become  more  glorious  than 
the  throne  of  the  Caesars. 

"Shock  after  shock  has  loosened  the  ice  from  the  conscience 
and  courage  of  the  North.  The  Republican  party  is  born,  and 
then  comes  the  first  political  victory  of  freedom.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln has  entered  the  White  House,  and  Jeff  Davis  has  turned  his 
back  upon  Washington  forever.  The  trial-morning  is  rising 
gloomily  on  the  Republic.  The  gray  light  is  haunted  with  strange 
voices,  winged  portents,  bloody  apparitions.  Right  and  Wrong, 
Freedom  and  Slavery,  have  reached  the  plains  of  '60. 

"For  years  Phillips  had  advocated  disunion.  To  him,  as  well 
as  to  Garrison,  the  Constitution  was  a  *  covenant  with  Death  and 
an  agreement  with  Hell.'  It  was  the  strong  tower  of  the  slave- 
power,  and  he  longed  to  see  it  pulled  down.  He  firmly  believed 
that  nothing  could  save  slavery  after  this  crutch,  which  the  Devil 
had  given  it,  had  been  broken.  To  shatter  the  staff  over  the  head 
of  the  Evil,  was  the  solution  of  the  problem.  He  did  not  perceive 
at  once  all  the  forces  and  circumstances  which  were  to  effect  a 


408        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

consummation  he  so  devoutly  labored  for.  He  saw  the  wrong, 
and  he  sought  the  remedy  in  dissolution.  He  thought  this  could 
be  reached  by  peaceable  secession,  a  solemn  division  of  the  Union 
in  convention,  a  formal  separation  of  two  civilizations,  the  Four- 
teenth and  Nineteenth  centuries,  a  parting  on  that  great  day  of 
the  sheep  and  the  goats,  —  liberty  and  slavery,  —  the  one  on  the 
right,  the  other  on  the  left  — the  one  to  enter  into  peace,  honor, 
justice,  and  a  more  perfect  union ;  the  other  into  outer  darkness, 
to  poverty,  public  distress,  financial  ruin,  masters  weeping,  and 
slaves  breaking  their  chains  amid  the  horror  of  insurrection.  He 
saw  but  in  a  glass  dimly.  The  confusion,  the  wide-spread  misery, 
the  lamentation,  the  thick  darkness,  and  the  blood  of  masters,  were 
indeed  to  fall  upon  the  South,  but  not  as  a  consequence  of  peace- 
able secession  and  a  possible  insurrection  of  slaves.  They  were 
to  come  to  pass  amidst  the  tramp  of  mighty  armies  from  the 
North  rushing  over  her  white  fields  and  smiling  cities,  laying 
waste  with  the  sword  of  a  million  freemen  her  magnificence  and 
institutions,  stained  with  the  wrongs  of  two  centuries  of  oppres- 
sion. Phillips  had  become  the  oracle  of  Destiny  impending.  He, 
too,  groped  at  times  amid  the  thick-falling  shadows  of  fate ;  but  it 
was  always  toward  justice  in  the  fore-front  of  the  host  of  free- 
dom. All  he  wanted  was  more  light;  and  it  came,  in  the  glare  of 
cannon  in  Charleston  Harbor.  The  God  of  battle  revealed  his 
purpose  to  the  great  leader  in  the  smoke  and  fire  of  that  mad 
April  morning.  He  saw  in  a  twinkling  Emancipation  marching 
in  the  lurid  track  of  war,  —  war  for  the  Union.  With  swift  en- 
ergy and  triumphant  faith  he  whirled  into  line  with  the  majestic 
figure  and  under  the  flag  of  the  Union.  Under  the  flag  at  last, 
his  divine  speech  broke  loose,  and  rolled  onward,  swelling  and 
dashing  like  the  free  and  glorious  ocean.  Every  throb  of  his 
great  soul  drove  the  hot  blood  of  patriotism  through  vast  multi- 
tudes. He  was  the  eagle  of  eloquence,  bearing  on  his  outspread 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  409 

wings  the  tumultuous  longings,  the  rising  wrath,  of  nineteen  mil- 
lions to  action,  —  Godlike  action. 

"  To  abolish  slavery,  and  arm  the  blacks,  he  proclaimed  now  the 
supreme  duty  and  demand  of  the  hour.  He  saw  at  once,  what  it 
took  Lincoln  and  Seward  and  the  Republican  party  two  years  to 
see,  that  the  Rebellion  could  never  be  crushed  until  the  slaves 
were  freed,  and  invoked  to  strike  for  their  liberties.  Any  other 
policy  he  saw  would  end  in  dishonor  and  defeat.  The  foul  stain 
of  two  hundred  years  must  be  washed  out  by  an  act  of  sublime 
justice  before  victory  would  smile  upon  the  national  banner.  Till 
then  our  armies  would  advance  only  to  retreat.  The  best  and 
bravest  of  the  land  would  fight  only  to  die.  The  treasures  of  the 
North  could  not  save,  the  courage  of  her  citizen  soldiery  could  not 
conquer  peace,  and  restore  the  Union.  One  act  of  justice  could. 
National  justice  had  become  a  national  necessity.  The  highest 
wisdom  dictated  it.  It  now  was  his  mission  to  lift  or  lash  the 
North  to  a  comprehension  of  the  situation.  No  one  escaped  the 
stern  scrutiny  and  rebuke  of  those  eyes,  which  burned  through 
shams  and  lies  to  the  innermost  and  uttermost  of  motive  and 
conduct,  —  through  the  procrastination  and  irresolution  of  Presi- 
dent and  cabinet,  general  and  statesmen,  and  laid  open  the  faith- 
lessness and  shortcomings  of  all.  He  who  swerved  a  hair's- 
breadth  from  the  path  of  justice  to  the  slave,  felt  the  keen  lash 
of  this  merciless  censor.  Not  Sumner,  nor  Lincoln,  nor  Grant 
escaped.  All  regard  for  the  feelings  of  others,  all  the  strengths 
and  weaknesses  of  friendship  which  make  one  man  hesitate  before 
censuring  another,  were  evaporated  from  his  heart,  dried  up  in  the 
fervor  and  madness  of  one  mighty  passion,  —  justice  to  the  negro. 
In  his  great  soul,  there  were  no  saving  clauses  for  high  or  low, 
friend  or  foe,  who  did  not  reach  up  to  the  full  measure  of  equal 
and  impartial  justice  as  the  policy  of  the  republic.  With  this 
sign,  his  matchless  eloquence  was  stamping  public  opinion,  and 
impelling  the  North  to  rally  and  conquer  by  it. 


410        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  The  public  sentiment  which  Lincoln  obeyed,  Phillips  created. 
It  was  not  enough  to  feel  it  responding  to  his  touch.  It  was  neces- 
sary also  to  tell  the  administration  that  the  tide  had  risen.  And 
it  happened  often,  that,  if  he  would  be  heard,  he  had  to  deliver  his 
message  in  no  uncertain  tone.  '  Free  the  slaves  at  once :  you  can 
never  save  the  Union  until  you  do,'  said  Phillips.  While  Lincoln 
would  reply,  '  Not  so  fast  there :  I  am  waiting  for  public  sentiment 
to  ripen  for  emancipation  and  colored  troops.'  And  Phillips  would 
rejoin,  '  The  administration,  and  not  public  sentiment,  is  the 
laggard  in  this  war.  Courage,  man !  You  have  only  to  do  justice 
bravely,  and  the  people  will  sustain  you.'  But  Mr.  Lincoln  did 
not  so  think.  And  Mr.  Lincoln  —  with  all  reverence  I  say  it  — 
was  troubled  with  that  same  disease  which  he  said  McClellan  had, 
—  the  slows.  The  martyr  President  had  it,  and  that  very  bad,  dur- 
ing the  first  two  years  of  the  war.  Phillips  was  vigilant,  and 
Lincoln  was  tardy :  that  is  all.  Justice  long  deferred  came  at  last. 
The  Emancipation  Proclamation  transfigured  the  flag  of  the  Union, 
and  verified  the  predictions  of  Phillips.  The  colored  troops  at 
Wagner,  Olustee,  and  Petersburg  proved  by  their  blood  and  hero- 
ism the  race's  title  to  liberty.  After  the  war  Mr.  Phillips  abated 
nothing  of  zeal  and  vigilance  in  our  behalf.  For  the  freedmen 
he  demanded  the  ballot,  and  every  right  of  American  citizenship. 
To  Sumner  in  the  Senate,  and  Phillips  on  the  platform,  the  one 
acting  upon  government,  the  other  upon  public  opinion,  we  owe, 
under  God,  more  than  to  any  other  means,  the  political  rights 
which  we  now  possess. 

"The  great  struggle  for  freedom  may  be  divided  into  three 
parts :  The  first  beginning  with  the  imprisonment  of  Garrison  in 
1829,  and  ending  with  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive-slave  Law  in 
1850,  —  the  period  of  pure  moral  agitation,  of  which  Garrison  was 
the  leader.  The  second  extends  from  1850  to  the  close  of  the 
war,  —  the  period  of  decisive  action,  during  which  Phillips  was  the 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  411 

pre-eminent  figure.  And  the  last,  opening  in  1865,  is  not  yet  fin- 
ished. The  labors  of  the  first  two  are  to  be  permanently  secured 
in  this,  the  third,  by  law,  and  the  social  changes  which  come  with 
national  growth.  To  the  day  of  his  death,  Sumner's  was  the  tow- 
ering character  of  this  the  concluding  act  of  the  great  drama. 

"  Sumner  and  Garrison  are  not,  for  God  has  taken  them.  And 
to-night  we  are  standing  by  the  open  grave  of  the  greatest  of  the 
three.  But  not  in  yonder  burial-ground  are  we  to  look  for  a  life 
so  inspired  and  inspiring.  Dust  to  dust  was  never  spoken  of  a  soul 
so  luminous  with  the  light  of  immortal  living  and  doing.  Jus- 
tice, faith,  love  of  liberty,  were  the  great  qualities  which  distin- 
guished the  man.  Whoever  had  a  wrong  to  redress  could  appeal 
with  confidence  to  him.  The  needy  Irishwoman,  or  the  distressed 
colored  man,  who  sought  his  aid,  was  never  turned  away  uncom- 
forted.  He  was  the  fast  friend  of  woman,  of  Ireland,  temperance, 
the  Indian,  of  every  good  cause  and  true,  the  world  over.  Around 
his  bier,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned,  met,  and  mingled 
their  tears.  Whoever  saw  him  on  these  streets  during  the  last  years 
of  his  life,  whose  hearts  did  not  pour  out,  at  the  sight  of  him,  the 
homage  of  unspeakable  trust,  admiration,  and  love  ?  In  his  soul, 
there  was  no  guile.  He  walked  among  us,  the  incarnation  of 
honor,  purity,  righteousness.  True,  brave,  generous,  marvellous 
man,  —  as  he  spoke,  so  he  lived,  the  paragon  of  eloquence  and  the 
exemplar  of  the  noblest  virtues  of  the  husband,  citizen,  and  un- 
crowned king  of  public  opinion.  Such  a  life  does  not  die  in  the 
heart  of  the  world.  It  lives  on,  a  sweet  constraint,  wherever  the 
poor  prays  for  bread ;  a  stern  compulsion  wherever  the  slave  clanks 
his  chains,  and  liberty  struggles  with  power. 

"  Whoever  mistook  appearance  for  reality,  and  preferred  the 
temporal  and  visible  to  the  eternal  and  invisible  verities  of  mind 
and  God,  he  never.  He  saw  this  great  country,  her  ships  sailing 
upon  the  sea,  her  cities  shining  in  the  plain,  labor  toiling  at  the 


412        LIFE  AND   TINES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

loom,  capital  flowing  into  vaults,  —  he  saw  all  the  glory  of  this  re- 
public, its  opulence  and  power,  —  and  he  looked,  and  beheld  that 
all  was  vanity.  For,  under  all  this  splendor  and  laughing  pros- 
perity, sin  was  at  work.  He  knew  that  a  lie  was  strong  enough  to 
overthrow  and  crumble  all  this  worldly  power  and  grandeur. 
Truth,  justice,  righteousness,  are  the  only  permanent  forces  in  the 
universe.  All  else  must  fail  and  perish,  like  the  grass  which  to-day 
is,  and  to-morrow  rots  where  it  once  flourished.  Ideas,  character, 
goodness,  —  the  emotions  are  all  that  we  really  possess.  They 
pass  over  the  huge,  sensuous  world,  and  empires  rise  and  fall,  races 
endure  or  vanish.  They  alone  are  worth  striving  for.  All  elsa  is 
dust.  Put  justice  at  the  centre  of  life,  keep  truth  pure  in  the 
heart  of  a  nation,  bind  about  it  love  for  all  mankind.  These  are 
the  only  forces  which  make  for  it  permanent  peace  and  advancing 
greatness.  .We  hear  this  voice  now  sounding  in  our  ears.  We 
feel  this  light  now  breaking  in  our  hearts.  They  come  to  us  from 
the  open  grave  of  our  fallen  leader,  from  the  air  breathing,  burning 
with  the  eloquence  of  his  life  and  death,  saying,  '  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts, my  country,  love  righteousness,  be  just !  * 

"  And  now,  fellow-citizens  of  the  same  race,  this  loss  comes  to 
us  with  peculiar  grief.  He  was  our  own,  our  beautiful,  our  strong, 
our  devoted  one.  The  sentinel  has  fallen  at  his  post.  Take  a 
last  look,  and  the  eternal  blessing  of  those  mute  lips.  They  speak 
to  us  words  of  hope  and  duty.  They  bid  us  finish  what  yet  waits 
to  be  done.  The  message  to  us  is  FAITH,  LABOR.  Let  us  gird 
ourselves  with  the  spirit  of  our  great  friend.  The  work  to  be 
done  now,  is  to  be  done  by  our  own  hands.  The  battle  against 
caste-prejudice,  the  battle  for  the  civil  and  political  liberties  of  our 
race  in  the  South,  the  battle  against  moral  foes  within,  against  the 
mastery  of  the  appetites,  against  idleness,  intemperance,  and  igno- 
rance, are  now  to  be  fought.  Over  these  obstacles  let  us  march  to 
equality  under  the  law,  to  domestic  happiness,  to  temperate,  indus- 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  413 

trious,  and  educated  manhood.  Great  lights  are  above  us.  Sum- 
ner,  Garrison,  Phillips,  and  the  innumerable  company  of  anti- 
slavery  saints  and  martyrs,  watch  us  from  the  skies.  Night  and 
day  are  full  of  their  glory.  They  gleam  now  from  the  firmament. 
They  beam  now  upon  our  faces.  They  implore  us  by  the  chains 
which  we  wore  two  hundred  years ;  by  the  struggles,  sufferings, 
and  triumphs  of  liberty ;  by  our  duties,  our  rights  and  wrongs ;  for 
ourselves,  posterity,  and  country,  —  to  be  faithful  to  the  high  trust 
of  FREEMEN." 

Shortly  after  the  funeral,  Frederick  Douglass,  a  life- 
long friend  of  Mr.  Phillips,  delivered  an  address  before 
an  audience  at  Washington,  D.C.  From  the  manuscript 
of  this  eulogy,  which  the  orator  has  kindly  loaned  us 
for  the  purpose,  we  select  the  following  passages :  — 

"  We  are  here  to  commemorate  the  virtues,  and  commend  the 
example,  of  Wendell  Phillips,  —  a  man  of  rare  endowments,  and 
of  rare  devotion  to  the  cause  of  justice,  liberty,  and  humanity. 

"  Death  has  been  very  busy  during  the  last  few  years,  in  thin- 
ning out  the  ranks  of  such  men.  The  list  of  those  who  have  de- 
parted is  longer  and  more  brilliant  than  that  which  remains.  We 
cannot  think  of  the  anti-slavery  movement  without  remembering 
such  names  as  John  Quincy  Adams,  William  Slade,  John  P.  Hale, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  Charles  Sumner,  William  H.  Seward,  Horace 
Greeley,  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  Samuel  J.  May,  William  Goodell,  Gerrit  Smith,  and 
many  others  who  might  as  worthily  be  named.  These  have  all 
disappeared  behind  that  curtain  which  veils  the  living  present 
from  the  mysteries  of  death  and  eternity ;  and  now  the  most  bril- 
liant and  eloquent  of  them  all,  has  laid  aside  his  shining  armor, 
and  passed  on  to  his  eternal  rest. 


414        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

11 1  was  among  those  who  travelled  many  miles  to  attend  his 
funeral  services.  This  simple  act  was  a  better  expression  of  the 
love  and  reverence  felt  for  this  man,  and  a  higher  tribute  to  his 
many  virtues,  than  any  words  of  mine,  however  well  chosen,  can 
render.  The  ties  that  bound  me  to  Wendell  Phillips  were  closer 
and  stronger  than  ties  between  most  men.  They  were  both  gene- 
ral and  special,  public  and  personal.  He  was  among  the  first  of 
those  noble  anti-slavery  men  in  Massachusetts,  who,  more  than 
five  and  forty  years  ago,  gave  me  a  heart-felt  welcome  to  a  home 
of  freedom  and  a  life  of  usefulness.  I  went  to  his  funeral  as  to 
that  of  one  of  my  own  household ;  as  to  that  of  a  life-long  friend, 
an  affectionate  brother,  one  to  whom  I  was  indebted  for  offices  the 
highest  and  best  that  a  great  man  can  bestow  upon  his  humble 
brother.  It  was  his  to  give  me  generous  sympathy,  wise  counsel, 
and  a  noble  example.  His  funeral  was  an  occasion  long  to  be  re- 
membered. It  was  not  so  much  a  season  of  tears  as  a  season  of 
calm  resignation.  The  grief  that  he  was  gone  was  subdued  by  a 
sense  of  gratitude  that  he  had  been  spared  so  long.  Lament  we 
may  and  must  when  a  friend  has  departed,  and  when  a  great 
champion  of  liberty  has  fallen.  But  our  grief  is  not  without 
consolation:  for  when  the  full  measure  of  human  life  has  been 
evenly  filled  up  with  good  works,  as  in  this  case ;  when  all  the 
great  purposes  of  individual  human  existence  have  been  fairly 
accomplished ;  when  a  blameless  and  beautiful  career  amid  all  the 
sweet  consolations  of  home,  family,  and  friends,  has  been  calmly 
ended ;  when  sin,  the  poisonous  sting  of  death,  has  lost  its  power 
to  inflame  the  wounds  of  the  living,  or  to  disturb  the  repose  of  the 
dead ;  when  a  life  that  began  in  conflict,  clouds,  and  darkness, 
ends  in  peace,  victory,  and  glory,  —  there  is  no  permanent  lodge- 
ment for  pain  and  sorrow. 

"The  place  of  his  funeral  service  was  strikingly  appropriate 
and  suggestive.  It  was  the  old  Hollis-street  Unitarian  Church, 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  415 

famous  for  the  marvellous  ministry  of  John  Pierpont,  a  man  who 
added  to  his  high  qualities  as  a  teacher,  writer,  and  preacher,  those 
of  poet,  scholar,  patriot,  statesman,  and  reformer.  This  edifice  is 
one  of  the  oldest  in  the  city  of  Boston.  To  those  who  knew  its 
history,  there  were  sermons  in  its  very  walls.  Looking  up  to  its 
lofty  pulpit,  high  above  its  high-backed,  old-fashioned  pews,  my 
mind  was  carried  back  to  the  time  when  John  Pierpont  spoke  his 
brave,  scorching,  and  incisive  words  against  those  twin  monsters, 
the  liquor-power  and  the  slave-power  of  our  country,  and  thereby 
brought  down  upon  himself  the  bitter  and  persistent  hostility  of 
the  common  enemies  of  human  welfare  and  happiness.  It  was 
here,  too,  that  Starr  King,  king  of  pulpit  orators  in  his  time, 
poured  forth  his  soul  for  truth,  justice,  and  liberty.  It  was  here, 
too,  worshipped  Francis  Jackson,  the  brave  man  who  welcomed 
to  his  house  an  anti-slavery  prayer-meeting,  in  the  face  of  a  howl- 
ing mob  that  threatened  to  tear  it  down  if  he  gave  such  welcome. 
The  very  atmosphere  of  the  place  seemed  pervaded  with  the  prin- 
ciples that  inspired  the  energies,  moulded  the  life,  and  fashioned 
the  eloquence,  of  Wendell  Phillips. 

"  As  was  the  place,  so  was  the  conduct  of  the  funeral.  It  was 
made  impressive  by  its  very  simplicity.  There  were  no  sombre 
weeds  of  mourning  festooning  pillars,  pulpit,  or  chancel,  no  floral 
decorations,  no  solemn  pomp,  no  high-sounding  ceremony,  no 
ostentatious  symbols  of  grief  to  be  seen  anywhere ;  but  all  was  like 
the  great  man  whose  funeral  it  was,  unstrained,  modest,  natural, 
simple,  and  consistent.  A  few  well-chosen  scriptural  quotations,  a 
prayer,  more  of  thanks  than  of  supplication,  a  hymn  of  joy  rather 
than  a  dirge  of  sorrow,  and  all  was  over ;  and  the  corpse  of  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  on  the  arms  of  those  who  had  loved  and  honored  him 
in  life,  was  silently  and  reverently  borne  away  to  old  Faneuil  Hall, 
to  lie  in  state,  where  for  nearly  fifty  years  the  same  noble  form 
often  stood  up  to  reprove  and  denounce  the  errors,  prejudices,  and 


416        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF   WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

wrong-doings  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  where  I  have  often  seen 
him  hooted  down  by  the  infuriated  populace,  because  of  his  fidel- 
ity to  the  claims  of  justice  and  liberty. 

"  The  contrast  between  then  and  now  is  conspicuous,  striking, 
and  impressive,  —  Wendell  Phillips,  reviled  while  alive,  reverenced 
and  adored  when  dead ;  unpopular  when  he  spoke,  applauded  now 
that  he  was  silent. 

"  The  hold  this  man  had  upon  the  people  of  Boston  and  Massa- 
chusetts was  well  illustrated  by  the  thousands  wading  through 
mud  and  rain  to  Faneuil  Hall,  to  take  one  last  look  at  the  tranquil 
features  of  him  they  had  so  often  seen  and  heard  in  life.  Not 
more  significant  was  this  grand  procession  as  to  numbers,  than  was 
its  composition  and  representative  character.  Rich  men,  poor  men, 
learned  men,  simple  men,  Englishmen,  and  Irishmen,  reverently 
gathered  around  the  corpse  of  this,  the  friend  of  all  men. 

"  Until  I  made  one  of  this  vast  throng,  and  looked  into  the 
casket  that  held  all  that  was  mortal  of  Wendell  Phillips,  I  could 
hardly  realize  that  my  friend  and  co-laborer  of  five  and  forty  years 
was  indeed  dead,  and  the  great  loss  the  cause  of  humanity  had  sus- 
tained in  his  death. 

"  Of  all  the  multitudes  now  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  none  have  a  better  right  to  engage  in  such  manifesta- 
tions than  the  colored  people  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  that 
Mr.  Phillips  was  a  friend  to  temperance,  to  the  cause  of  the  work- 
ing-classes, and  to  Ireland.  Wherever  the  tyrant  reared  his  head, 
he  was  ready,  like  O'Connell,  to  deal  his  bolts  upon  it.  But  he 
was  primarily  and  pre-eminently  the  colored  man's  friend,  not 
because  the  colored  man  was  colored,  not  because  he  was  of  a  dif- 
ferent variety  of  the  human  family  from  himself,  but  because  he 
was  a  man,  and  fully  entitled  to  enjoy  all  the  rights  and  immuni- 
ties of  manhood.  The  cause  of  the  slave  was  his  first  love ;  and 
from  it  he  never  wavered,  but  was  true  and  steadfast  through  life. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  417 

"  It  was  for  him  the  theme  of  themes,  the  one  that  touched  his 
heart,  aroused  his  soul,  and  fired  his  eloquence.  Great  and  power- 
ful as  he  was  as  a  speaker  on  all  other  subjects  that  engaged  his  won- 
drous faculties,  he  was  incomparably  greater  when  he  spoke  for  the 
rights  of  the  American  slave.  Other  subjects  stirred  his  intellect ; 
but  this  touched  the  deepest  chords  of  his  heart,  and  engaged  the 
whole  man  more  completely  than  all  else.  Only  a  part  of  his 
weapons  were  employed  elsewhere :  here  he  brought  to  his  help  his 
whole  mental  and  moral  artillery.  Not  only  the  cruelty  and  wick- 
edness of  slavery,  but  its  superlative  meanness,  stirred  his  soul, 
and  kindled  his  moral  indignation.  He  gave  no  quarter  to  its 
defenders  at  any  point,  but  poured  the  living  coals  of  truth,  and 
his  boundless  wealth  of  scorn  and  execration,  upon  the  system,  and 
the  men  who  upheld  it.  He  was  the  most  uncompromising  man  I 
ever  saw.  Nothing  that  stood  in  the  way  of  the  slave's  freedom, 
secured  respect  or  exemption.  He  spared  neither  church  nor  state, 
priest  nor  politician,  high  nor  low,  friend  nor  foe.  Especially  was 
he  severe  upon  a  half-hearted  and  halting  support  of  anti-slavery 
principles.  The  lash  and  sting  of  his  fierce  invective  often  fell 
mercilessly  upon  men  who  thought  they  were  serving  the  cause  of 
emancipation  not  less  well  and  faithfully  than  himself.  Hale, 
Chase,  Giddings,  Seward,  Lincoln,  Mann,  and  even  Charles  Sum- 
ner,  were  sharply  criticised  by  him.  It  need  not  be  pretended  that 
Mr.  Phillips  was  always  just  in  his  criticisms  and  invectives.  He 
made  no  pretensions  to  infallibility,  but  his  sincerity  and  devotion 
to  principle  were  utterly  beyond  question. 

"He  was  universally  popular  as  a  lyceum  lecturer,  and  often 
received  calls  to  lecture  by  associations  bitterly  hostile  to  his  anti- 
slavery  opinions.  He  had  more  calls  to  fill  such  appointments 
than  he  could  possibly  comply  with.  To  such  invitations  he 
usually  replied,  '  One  hundred  dollars  and  expenses  if  upon  a 
literary  subject;  free  of  charge  if  upon  slavery.'  To  this  cause 


418        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS.  " 

he  gave  his  time,  his  money,  and  his  eloquence,  without  reserve, 
and  without  fee  or  reward. 

"  In  measuring  this  man's  worth,  we  must  not  view  him  in  the 
sunlight  of  the  present.  We  must  go  back  to  the  time  when  he 
first  gave  his  support  to  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and  reflect  what 
was  the  condition  of  the  public  mind  on  that  subject  at  that  time. 

"Daniel  Webster,  you  know,  once  said,  'Any  man  can  do  an 
agreeable  duty,  but  not  every  man  can  do  a  disagreeable  duty.' 
After  slavery  struck  at  the  life  of  the  nation,  after  it  had  crippled 
and  killed  thousands  of  our  sons  and  brothers  on  the  battle-field, 
after  it  had  rent  asunder  the  nation  at  the  centre,  and  imperilled 
the  existence  of  the  republic,  it  was  easy  to  be  an  anti-slavery 
man  :  but  when  slavery  ruled  both  the  State  and  the  Church,  when 
it  commanded  the  support  of  both  press  and  pulpit,  and  wielded 
the  purse  and  the  sword  of  the  nation;  when  he  who  dared  to 
speak  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  lost  caste  in  society, 
made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and  exposed  his  person  and  prop- 
erty to  violence  and  peril,  —  to  espouse  this  cause  at  such  a  time 
was  not  an  agreeable  duty,  but  one  that  required  the  noblest 
qualities  of  head  and  heart. 

"  A  few  facts  only  need  to  be  stated,  to  show  how  dark  and 
terrible  was  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  republic  when  young 
Phillips  gave  his  heart  to  the  anti-slavery  movement.  In  1831 
Nathaniel  Turner  headed  an  insurrection  in  Southampton  County, 
Va.  The  excitement  caused  by  this  act  was  tremendous,  and 
kindled  against  the  negro  the  fiercest  hate.  In  the  same  year  Mr. 
Garrison  established  '  The  Liberator,'  in  Boston.  In  1835  he  was 
mobbed,  and  dragged  through  the  streets  of  that  city  with  a  rope 
around  his  neck.  In  1837  Lovejoy  was  murdered  at  Alton,  111., 
for  advocating  emancipation  in  his  paper.  In  1838  Pennsylvania 
Hall  was  burned  down  in  Philadelphia  by  a  pro-slavery  mob.  In 
1842  a  slave-holding  mob  burned  down  several  colored  churches 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  419 

and  halls  in  Philadelphia,  and  held  sway  in  that  city  for  several 
days  without  check  or  hinderance.  In  the  South,  at  this  time, 
abolitionist  was  but  another  name  for  a  negro  thief  and  a  cut- 
throat. In  the  North,  it  stood  for  a  disorganizer  and  a  fanatic. 
Both  the  great  political  parties,  Whig  and  Democratic,  were  pledged 
to  the  suppression  of  anti-slavery  literature ;  and  Congress  adopted 
what  was  known  as  the  gag-rule,  suppressing  all  papers  in  any  way 
relating  to  slavery.  Gov.  Everett  of  Massachusetts  recommended 
the  passing  of  a  law  making  the  discussion  of  slavery  an  offence 
punishable  at  common  law.  The  great  Methodist-Episcopal 
Church,  at  its  General  Conference,  held  in  Cincinnati  in  1836, 
issued  the  following  resolution :  *  Resolved,  By  the  delegates  of  the 
annual  conferences  in  general  conference  assembled,  that  they  are 
decidedly  opposed  to  modern  abolitionism,  and  wholly  disclaim 
any  right,  wish,  or  intention  to  interfere  in  the  civil  and  political 
relation  between  master  and  slave,  as  it  exists  in  the  slave-holding 
States  of  the  Union. 

"  The  position  of  the  four  leading  religious  denominations  were 
in  harmony  with  the  position  of  this  resolution.  The  sentiment 
of  the  time  was,  Down  with  abolitionism!  Suppress  the  agita- 
tion 1  The  common  arguments  against  anti-slavery  men  were, 
'You  had  better  mind  your  own  business.'  'You  are  meddling 
with  what  does  not  concern  you.'  'You  are  only  making  the  con- 
dition of  the  slave  worse.'  'You  have  put  back  their  cause  fifty 
years.'  'You  should  leave  slavery  where  the  wisdom  of  the 
fathers  left  it.'  You  will  never  put  down  slavery  by  this  agita- 
tion.' '  What  have  we  to  do  with  slavery  ? '  '  What  would  you  do 
with  the  negroes  if  you  had  them  all  ?  '  '  The  North  is  no  better 
than  the  South.'  'You  would  not  associate  with  negroes.'  'You 
want  the  negroes  to  cut  their  masters'  throats.'  'If  you  turn 
them  loose,  they  will  all  come  North.'  '  If  you  want  them  free, 
why  don't  you  pay  for  them? '  'The  negro  will  not  work  without 


420        LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

a  master.'  'The  slaves  are  contented  and  happy.'  'The  Bible 
sanctions  slavery.'  'England  forced  slavery  upon  the  colonies.' 
'  Slavery  is  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.'  '  The  early  Christians 
said  nothing  against  sfavery.'  '  Are  you  wiser  than  the  Fathers  ?  * 
'  The  slaves  are  the  happiest  peasantry  in  the  world.'  '  You  dare 
not  go  South,  and  preach  your  abolition.'  'They  could  not  take 
care  of  themselves.'  '  They  are  not  prepared  for  freedom.'  'You 
are  just  making  trouble.'  'If  God  wants  slavery  abolished,  he 
will  do  it  in  his  own  good  time.' 

"  These  sentiments  reflect  the  public  opinion  of  the  time  when 
Wendell  Phillips  bravely  stepped  into  the  anti-slavery  ranks,  and 
took  his  place  with  the  lowly  and  despised,  nearly  fifty  years 
ago. 

"  It  is  said  that  the  redeemer  always  comes  from  above.  What- 
ever may  be  the  truth  in  respect  to  this,  as  a  general  rule,  there  is 
no  question  that  Wendell  Phillips,  in  a  very  important  sense, 
came  from  above.  He  belonged  to  the  upper  circle  of  American 
society.  He  had  ancestry,  birth,  wealth,  talents,  influential  friends, 
and  the  best  education  which  wealth  and  opportunity  could  give 
him.  Office  and  honors  were  before  him.  Power  and  fame  were 
within  his  reach.  He  laid  them  all  aside,  and  cast  his  lot  with 
the  slave  and  the  men  everywhere  spoken  against. 

"  Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble 

"When  we  share  her  wretched  crust, 
Ere  her  cause  bring  fame  and  profit, 

And  'tis  prosperous  to  be  just; 
Then  it  is  the  brave  man  chooses, 

While  the  coward  stands  aside, 
Doubting  in  his  abject  spirit, 

Till  Ms  Lord  is  crucified, 
And  the  multitude  make  virtue 

Of  the  faith  they  had  denied. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  421 

For  Humanity  sweeps  onward: 

"Where  to-day  the  martyr  stands, 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas 

With  the  silver  in  his  hands; 
Far  in  front  the  cross  stands  ready 

And  the  crackling  fagots  burn, 
While  the  hooting  mob  of  yesterday 

In  silent  awe  return 
To  glean  up  the  scattered  ashes 

Into  History's  golden  urn." 

Among  all  the  noble  men  in  Massachusetts  who  early  came  to  the 
support  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  in  his  war  upon  slavery,  none 
came  from  a  higher  social  plane,  or  parted  with  brighter  prospects, 
or  brought  to  the  cause  more  brilliant  abilities,  than  did  Wendell 
Phillips.  He  might  have  been  congressman,  governor,  senator,  of 
the  United  States,  and,  possibly,  have  risen  higher  still,  had  he 
allied  himself  to  either  of  the  great  political  parties.  In  the 
Senate,  had  he  reached  that  body,  he  would  have  ranked  with 
Sumner  and  Conkling  as  an  orator,  and  with  Fessenden,  Grimes, 
Douglas,  and  O.  P.  Morton  as  a  debater. 

"  Eloquent  as  he  was  as  a  lecturer,  he  was  far  more  effective  as 
a  debater.  Debate  was  for  him  the  flint  and  steel  which  brought 
out  all  his  fire. 

"  The  memory  of  Mr.  Phillips  was  something  wonderful.  He 
would  listen  to  an  elaborate  speech  for  hours,  and,  without  a  single 
note  of  what  had  been  said,  in  writing,  reply  to  every  part  of  it 
as  fully  and  completely  as  if  the  speech  were  written  out  before 
him.  Those  who  heard  him  only  on  the  platform,  and  when  not 
confronted  by  an  opponent,  have  a  very  limited  comprehension  of 
his  wonderful  resources  as  a  speaker. 

"In  his  style  as  a  debater,  he  resembled  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in 
grace  and  courtliness  of  manner,  and  in  the  fluency  and  copious- 


422        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

ness  of  his  diction.  He  never  hesitated  for  a  word,  or  failed  to 
employ  the  word  best  fitted  to  express  his  thought  on  the  point 
under  discussion. 

"  It  may  be  said,  that,  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  it  was  easy  to 
do  all  this ;  since  one  might  have  a  full  command  of  all  the  facts 
and  arguments,  and  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  employ  them 
against  an  opponent.  But  this  was  not  so.  The  anti-slavery 
platform  in  Massachusetts  was  not  confined  to  the  bare  subject  of 
chattel  slavery.  The  whole  circle  of  human  interests  came  up 
for  discussion. 

"  Legal,  political,  ethical,  social,  and  religious  questions  claimed 
attention  and  debate.  As  the  whole  man  was  struck  down  by 
slavery,  so  the  whole  man  was  considered  by  the  friends  of  liberty 
in  advocating  his  claims  to  liberty.  In  all  these  discussions  Mr. 
Phillips  bore  his  full  share. 

"  His  oratory,  like  the  oratory  of  all  men,  had  its  period  of 
youth,  its  middle  age,  and  its  old  age.  When  young,  his  style 
was  ornate,  and  abounded  in  word-pictures.  More  than  forty 
years  ago,  when  he  had  just  returned  from  a  tour  in  Europe, 
where  he  witnessed  the  disgraceful  position  this  republic  had 
been  made  to  occupy  by  Gen.  Cass,  our  minister  to  France,  in 
refusing  to  sign  the  quintuple  treaty  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade,  he  made  a  speech  in  the  Tabernacle  in  New  York,  which 
illustrated  this  youthful  quality  of  his  oratory.  '  As  I  stood,'  said 
he,  '  on  the  shores  of  Genoa,  and  saw  our  beautiful  American  ship, 
the  "  Ohio,"  floating  on  the  placid  Mediterranean,  with  her  masts 
tapering  proportionally  aloft,  her  pennon  flying,  and  an  Eastern 
sun  reflecting  her  graceful  form  upon  the  sparkling  waters,  at- 
tracting the  gaze  of  the  multitude  on  the  shore,  I  thought  the 
scene  one  to  pride  any  American  to  think  himself  an  American ; 
but  when  I  thought,  that,  in  all  probability,  the  first  time  that 
gallant  ship  should  gird  on  her  gorgeous  apparel,  and  wake  from 


EULOGIES  AND    TRIBUTES.  423 

beneath  her  sides  her  dormant  thunder,  it  would  be  in  defence  of 
the  African  slave-trade,  I  could  but  blush,  and  hang  my  head,  to 
think  myself  an  American.' 

"On  another  occasion,  after  tracing  the  progress  of  liberty, 
under  the  symbol  of  the  eagle,  from  Greece  to  Rome,  and  from 
Rome  to  Western  Europe,  and  thence  to  America,  he  made  an 
impressive  pause  in  his  rapid  sketch ;  and,  while  his  audience  were 
yet  under  the  spell  of  his  matchless  eloquence,  he  exclaimed, 
*  Did  God  send  that  eagle  here  to  die  ?  Did  he  form  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  for  its  grave  ?  Did  he  pile  up  the  Rocky  Mountains 
for  its  monument?  Did  he  pour  out  Niagara's  thunders  for  its 
requiem?'  This  florid  style  of  the  young  orator  was  early  laid 
aside  for  a  more  direct  and  dignified  one,  which  grew  more  and 
more  chaste  with  his  advancing  years. 

"  Perfect  as  Mr.  Phillips  was  as  a  speaker,  he  lacked  one  ele- 
ment of  a  perfect  orator.  He  could  make  men  think,  make  them 
angry,  make  them  wince  under  his  scathing  denunciations;  he 
could  make  them  smile ;  but  he  could  not  bring  young  tears  from 
mature  eyes.  His  mission  was,  to  point  out  the  defects  in  the 
thoughts,  speech,  and  action  of  others ;  to  expose  the  short-com- 
ings of  men,  —  and  he  did  this  unsparingly  and  thoroughly.  He 
would  not  occupy  official  position  himself,  and  sharply  criticised 
all  who  did.  When  asked  to  come  and  fill  their  positions  better, 
his  answer  implied,  that,  were  he  in  office,  he  would  be  compelled 
to  do  as  others  did,  or  do  nothing.  At  any  time  within  the  last 
twenty  years,  he  might  have  been  sent  to  Congress  had  he  wished 
it ;  but  he  did  not  wish  it,  because,  in  that  case,  he  would  have  to 
forsake  his  vocation  as  a  critic,  and  become  an  actor,  and,  of 
course,  open  to  criticism.  I  cannot  but  think  this  was  a  mistake ; 
for  Mr.  Phillips  was  not  only  a  speaker,  but  a  man  of  affairs,  and 
was  marvellously  well  fitted  to  manage  affairs. 

"  The  true  nobility  of  this  man  was  shown  in  his  tender  regard 


424        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

for  the  feelings  of  the  lowly  and  proscribe^.  In  this  he  touched 
the  point  of  supererogation.  For  instance,  after  delivering  a  lec- 
ture to  the  New-Bedford  Lyceum  before  a  highly  cultivated  au- 
dience, and  when  brought  to  the  railroad  station,  as  I  was  not 
allowed  to  travel  in  a  first-class  car,  but  was  compelled  to  ride  in 
a  filthy  box  called  the  Jim  Crow  car,  he  would  step  to  my  side  in 
the  presence  of  his  aristocratic  friends,  and  walk  with  me  straight 
into  this  miserable  dog-car,  saying,  « Douglass,  if  you  cannot  ride 
with  me,  I  can  ride  with  you.'  On  the  Sound,  between  New  York 
and  Newport,  in  those  dark  days,  a  colored  passenger  was  not 
allowed  abaft  the  wheels  of  the  steamer,  and  had  to  spend  his 
nights  on  the  forward  deck,  with  horses,  sheep,  and  swine.  On 
such  trips,  when  I  was  a  passenger,  Wendell  Phillips  preferred  to 
walk  the  naked  deck  with  me,  to  taking  a  state-room.  I  could  not 
persuade  him  to  leave  me  to  bear  the  burden  of  insult  and  outrage 
alone.  Acts  like  these  gave  me  a  peep  into  this  man's  soul,  and 
taught  me  to  love  and  respect  him,  even  when  afterwards  he  made 
me,  at  times,  the  object  of  his  sharpest  criticism. 

"Wendell  Phillips  had  reached  that  point  where  he  respected 
neither  race  nor  color,  but  honored  manhood  wherever  he  found  it. 
He  had  no  word  to  say  in  favor  of  race-pride  or  race-prejudice, 
but  everywhere  evinced  his  high  respect  for  a  common  manhood ; 
and  in  this  he  set  an  example  for  men  of  every  shade  and  color. 

"  When  I  first  essayed  to  speak  in  public,  I  often  left  the  plat- 
form feeling  depressed  with  the  thought  that  my  effort  had  been  a 
failure ;  but  I  never  felt  thus  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Phillips,  that 
he  did  not  give  me  some  cheering  word.  When  I  was  going  to 
England,  and  expected  to  do  some  speaking  there,  he  said  to  me, 
'Douglass,  you  will  find  many  speakers  in  England  inferior  to 
ours,  but  you  will  find  some  who  are  superior  to  any  of  our  speak- 
ers. But  have  no  fear :  speak  there  as  you  do  here.  Be  yourself, 
and  you  will  succeed.' 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  425 

"  Perhaps  there  was  no  one  act  in  the  life  of  Wendell  Phillips 
that  showed  what  manner  of  mail  he  was,  and  better  illustrated 
his  dauntless  courage,  than  his  prompt  vindication  of  the  character 
and  motives  of  John  Brown,  immediately  after  his  raid  upon 
Harper's  Ferry.  For  the  moment,  the  blood  of  the  nation  stood 
still,  and  the  boldest  held  his  breath.  Murderer,  assassin,  cut- 
throat, incendiary,  traitor,  were  the  best  names  that  the  nation 
could  apply  to  Capt.  John  Brown.  A  fierce  scream  for  his  blood 
came  up  from  all  the  land.  Anti-slavery  men  made  haste  to  free 
themselves  from  all  complicity  with  him  by  condemning  both  the 
man  and  his  methods.  It  was  at  this  time,  in  the  midst  of  a  reign 
of  terror  such  as  the  country  had  never  before  seen,  that  Wendell 
Phillips  dared  to  step  forward,  and  demand  a  hearing  for  John 
Brown.  He  stood  alone.  No  voice  but  his  was  raised.  Men 
were  stunned  by  his  temerity.  By  many  he  was  deemed  as  mad 
as  the  men  at  Harper's  Ferry.  But  his  isolation  was  of  brief 
duration.  His  words  from  Beecher's  Brooklyn  pulpit  were  con- 
tagious. They  sounded  over  the  land  like  a  voice  from  heaven. 
Wise  men  heard  them  as  Saul  heard  on  his  way  to  Damascus,  and 
soon  John  Brown  vaulted  in  the  hearts  of  the  loyal  North  to  the 
dignity  of  hero  and  martyr.  He  spoke  the  word  for  which  mil- 
lions were  listening,  and  which  became  at  last  the  watchword  of 
the  loyal  nation,  and  to  which  the  armies  of  the  nation  were  to 
time  their  high  footsteps  to  Union,  law,  and  liberty. 

"The  cause  of  the  slave  had  many  advocates,  many  of  them 
very  able  and  very  eloquent;  but  it  had  only  one  Wendell 
Phillips. 

"  He  was  the  Wilberforce  of  America ;  and  as  Lamartine  once 
said  of  that  great  English  philanthropist,  so  we  may  say  of  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  that  he  went  up  to  heaven  with  a  million  broken 
fetters  in  his  arms,  as  evidence  of  a  life  well  spent." 


426        LIFE  AND    TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  memorial  services  in  honor  of  Mr.  Phillips, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  city  government  of  Boston, 
were  held  in  Tremont  Temple  on  the  afternoon  of 
April  18.  Admission  to  the  hall  was  by  tickets ;  and 
so  eager  were  the  fortunate  holders  of  them  to  secure 
their  seats,  that  when  the  doors  were  opened  at  two 
o'clock,  one  hour  before  the  time  announced  for  the 
exercises  to  begin,  a  crowd  of  people  was  waiting  to 
enter. 

The  exercises  were  introduced  by  an  organ  voluntary 
by  Mr.  Howard  M.  Dow.  Promptly  at  three  o'clock 
the  Temple  Quartet,  upon  a  signal  from  Mayor  Martin, 
who  presided  on  the  occasion,  stepped  to  the  front  of 
the  platform,  and  sang  to  the  tune  "  Loyal  to  the  end," 
a  hymn  written  by  C.  J.  Sprague,  beginning,  — 

"  Freedom  dwells  throughout  our  own  beloved  land : 
Up  to  heaven  its  voice  is  swelling." 

The  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  then  delivered  a  prayer,  in 
which  he  spoke  of  Mr.  Phillips  as  one  of  the  prophets 
of  God,  who  was  sent  to  rouse  the  heart  and  conscience 
of  the  world.  After  the  prayer,  the  quartet  sang  a 
hymn,  written  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  Savage.  Then 
followed  the  reading  of  a  poem  by  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Blake. 

In  introducing  the  orator  of  the  occasion,  Mayor 
Martin  spoke  briefly.  George  William  Curtis,  on  ris- 
ing, was  received  with  prolonged  applause.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  holding  the  closest  attention  of  the  audience. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  427 

No  one  in  the  audience  who  ever  heard  Mr.  Phillips 
could  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  marked  resemblance 
between  the  two  men  in  their  oratorical  style. 

Mr.  Curtis  began  his  oration  by  remarking  that  Mr. 
Phillips  was  not  the  treasure  of  the  city  or  of  the  State 
alone,  but  he  was  the  nation's  .possession.  He  occupied 
a  place  of  national  eminence,  and  presented  the  strange 
anomaly  of  a  man,  who,  while  a  private  citizen,  was 
yet  a  public  leader.  The  homage  paid  him  was  a  trib- 
ute to  personal  character.  His  early  life  was  briefly 
sketched;  and,  after  a  rapid  glance  at  his  youth  and 
his  college-course,  Mr.  Curtis  came  to  the  time  when, 
sitting  in  his  law-office  waiting  for  a  client,  Mr.  Phil- 
lips witnessed  the  exciting  scenes  of  the  Garrison  mob. 
The  long-awaited  client  came  to  him  that  day :  it  was 
"wronged  and  degraded  humanity."  A  detailed  ac- 
count of  the  circumstances  of  Mr.  Phillips's  first  speech 
in  Faneuil  Hall  was  then  given,  and  the  old,  familiar 
story  gained  new  beauty  and  significance  from  the  fas- 
cinating and  inspiring  manner  in  which  it  was  told. 
Having  thus  introduced  him  upon  the  rostrum,  Mr. 
Curtis  then  proceeded  to  speak  of  Mr.  Phillips  as  the 
orator  of  the  anti-slavery  cause.  He  brought  out  the 
full  force  of  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Phillips  stood  alone, 
against  parties  and  established  order  and  old  traditions. 
The  country  needed  to  be  aroused :  agitation  was  the 
duty  of  the  hour,  and  to  this  task  Mr.  Phillips  devoted 
himself.  How  well  he  performed  it,  and  by  what 


428       LIFE  AND   TIMES  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

methods,  Mr.  Curtis  showed  by  a  careful  analysis  of 
his  subject's  oratorical  powers.  Then,  changing  his 
theme,  Mr.  Curtis  unfolded  before  the  audience  the 
growth  of  slavery  till  it  became  a  mighty  giant,  grap- 
pling in  deadly  conflict  with  liberty.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  passed,  and  "liberty  arose  unbruised  and  un- 
harmed." Returning  again  to  Mr.  Phillips,  Mr.  Curtis 
sketched  rapidly  the  events  of  his  later  years,  and 
closed  by  a  careful  summing  up  of  his  work,  and  pre- 
sentation of  the  principles  which  ruled  his  life.  The 
orator  finished  his  manuscript  amid  the  enthusiastic 
applause  of  the  audience.  A  pleasing  episode,  at  this 
point,  was  the  calling  upon  Dr.  Smith,  the  author  of 
"America,"  —  the  singing  of  which  closed  the  exer- 
cises,—  by  the  mayor,  to  rise  in  his  place  upon  the 
platform,  that  the  audience  might  honor  him.  He  was 
greeted  with  prolonged  applause.  After  singing  with 
spirit  the  familiar  hymn,  the  audience  received  the 
benediction,  and  then  dispersed. 

I  cannot  better  close  this  chapter  than  by  reprodu- 
cing, with  the  author's  kind  permission,  the  following 
beautiful  poem  by  Mr.  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  of  Bos- 
ton: — 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

What  shall  we  mourn  ?     For  the  prostrate  tree  that  sheltered  the 

young  green  wood  ? 
For  the  fallen  cliff  that  fronted  the  sea,  and  guarded  the  fields 

from  the  flood  ? 
For  the  eagle  that  died  in  the  tempest,  afar  from  its  eyry's  brood  ? 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  429 

Nay,  not  for  these  shall  we  weep  ;  for  the  silver  cord  must  be 

worn, 
And  the  golden  fillet  shrink  back  at  last,  and  the  dust  to  its  earth 

return ; 
And  tears  are  never  for  those  who  die  with  their  face  to  the  duty 

done ; 
But  we  mourn  for  the  fledglings  left  on  the  waste,  and  the  fields 

where  the  wild  waves  run. 


From  the  midst  of  the  flock  he  defended,  the  brave  one  has  gone 

to  his  rest ; 
And  the  tears  of  the  poor  he  befriended,  their  wealth  of  affliction 

attest. 

From  the  midst  of  the  people  is  stricken  a  symbol  they  daily  saw, 
Set  over  against  the  law-books,  of  a  higher  than  human  law ; 
For  his  life  was  a  ceaseless  protest,  and  his  voice  was  a  prophet's 

cry, 
To  be  true  to  the  truth,  and  faithful,  though  the  world  were  arrayed 

for  the  lie. 

From  the  hearing  of  those  who  hated,  a  threatening  voice  has 

past; 
But  the  lives  of  men  who  believe  and  die,  are  not  blown  like  a  leaf 

on  the  blast. 
A  sower  of  infinite  seed  was  he,  a  woodman  that  hewed  to  the 

light, 
Who  dared  to  be  traitor  to  Union  when  Union  was  traitor  to  right  1 

"  Fanatic  ! "  the  insects  hissed,  till  he  taught  them  to  understand 
That  the  highest  crime  may  be  written  in  the  highest  law  of  the 
land. 


430        LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"  Disturber  "   and   "  Dreamer "  the    Philistines    cried,   when  he 

preached  an  ideal  creed, 
Till  they  learned  that  the  men  who  have  changed  the  world,  with 

the  world  have  disagreed ; 
That  the  remnant  is  right,  when  the  masses  are  led  like  sheep  to 

the  pen ; 
For  the  instinct  of  equity  slumbers  till  roused  by  instinctive  men. 

It  is  not  enough  to  win  rights  from  a  king,  and  write  them  down 

in  a  book : 
New  men,  new  lights ;  and  the  fathers'  code  the  sons  may  never 

brook. 
What  is  liberty  now,  were  license  then ;  their  freedom  our  yoke 

would  be : 

And  each  new  decade  must  have  new  men  to  determine  its  liberty. 
Mankind  is  a  marching  army,  with  a  broadening  front  the  while : 
Shall  it  crowd  its  bulk  on  the  farm-paths,  or  clear  to  the  outward 

file? 

Its  pioneers  are  the  dreamers,  who  heed  neither  tongue  nor  pen 
Of  the  human  spiders,  whose  silk  is  wove  from  the  lives  of  toiling 

men. 

Come,  brothers,  here  to  the  burial !     But  weep  not,  rather  rejoice, 
For  his  fearless  life  and  his  fearless  death ;  for  his  true,  unequalled 

voice, 

Like  a  silver  trumpet,  sounding  the  note  of  human  right ; 
For  his  brave  heart,  always  ready  to  enter  the  weak  one's  fight ; 
For  his  soul,  unmoved  by  the  mob's  wild  shout,  or  the  social  sneer's 

disgrace ; 
For  his  free-born  spirit,  that  drew  no  line  between  class  or  creed  or 

race. 


EULOGIES  AND   TRIBUTES.  431 

Come,  workers !  here  was  a  teacher,  and  the  lesson  he  taught  was 

go,od: 

There  are  no  classes  or  races,  but  one  human  brotherhood ; 
There  are  no  creeds  to  be  outlawed,  no  colors  of  skin  debarred  ; 
Mankind  is  one  in  its  rights  and  wrongs,  —  one  right,  one  hope, 

one  guard. 
By  his  life  he  taught,  by  his  death  we  learn,  the  "great  reformer's 

creed,  — 
The  right  to  be  free,  and  the  hope  to  be  just,  and  the  guard  against 

selfish  greed. 
And  richest  of  all  are  the  unseen  wreaths  on  his  coffin-lid,  laid 

down 
By  the  toil-stained  hands  of  workmen,  —  their  sob,  their  kiss,  and 

their  crown. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 


DEC  3    1969 


$PR  1  1 


100m-8,'65(F6282s8)2373 


3  2106  00060  4402 


